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Feds: Duck-boat loading zone poses security risk

Ride the Ducks has its work cut out for it in Philadelphia. The duck-boat company is facing a number of lawsuits and trying to get city approval to resume operating. And now the feds are breathing down its neck.

Ride the Ducks has its work cut out for it in Philadelphia.

The duck-boat company is facing a number of lawsuits and trying to get city approval to resume operating. And now the feds are breathing down its neck.

Chief Judge Theodore A. McKee of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and other federal officials have told the National Park Service and city officials that Ride the Ducks' former loading zone along 6th Street north of Market poses a security risk to the federal courthouse.

McKee said the attempted bombing of Times Square last May made the moving of the duck boats from 6th Street more urgent.

"This is a no-brainer. We have to take steps to address this," he said in an interview with the Daily News.

"We don't want anything to jeopardize the duck-boat business. Our concern is that they don't jeopardize our security. It's not just them. It's everybody."

Highlighting one security concern, McKee wrote in a Nov. 3 letter to John Estey, the board chairman of the Independence Visitors Center, that U.S. Marshals in unmarked vehicles were able to access the location where the duck boats are stored and "no one challenged them or asked what they were doing."

It's unknown where the duck boats would load from if their proposal to start using the Schuylkill River, rather than the Delaware, is approved by the city.

The National Park Service declined in May to renew four Commercial Use Authorizations - licenses that allowed for the use of the sidewalk on 6th Street to board amphibious vehicles - for Ride the Ducks, Penn Ducks, Philly Ducks and River Ducks, all owned by Ride the Ducks International.

Bob Salmon, marketing and sales vice president for Ride the Ducks, said the company's priority is to discuss its proposal to begin using the Schuylkill River for its tours with the city.

"We have every intention to operate from the Independence Visitors Center, and our hope is to operate from the 6th Street side of the visitors center," Salmon said.

"We don't think that the assessment of us being a security risk is fair," he added.

No parking is allowed on the other streets that border the courthouse: Market, 7th and Arch.

"Allowing parking on one side doesn't make any sense," McKee said.

Even though Ride the Ducks' operations have been shut down since a July 7 accident on the Delaware River, resulting in the deaths of two tourists, its official website still lists 6th and Market as the pickup point.

It also tells customers that it's planning to resume operations this spring.