FBI drilling companies for Rowe

Don't think that the federal investigation of former Mayor Bill Campbell's administration has slackened because there's a new mayor in town.

Dirk Van Reenen, the vice president of geotechnical drilling and testing company Qore Property Sciences, says an investigator with the FBI called one of his employees in the last week to ask about a geotech contract that is pending with the city. Apparently close Campbell bud Ricky Rowe held the contract during the former mayor's administration, and the feds wanted to know what the Franklin administration is doing with the contract.

Franklin has known Rowe for years, and he was a contributor during the early part of her campaign.

Van Reenen says he does not believe the city has taken any action on the contract, and it has not gone before the City Council.

As a major campaign contributor — he once bragged to friends that he raised half a million dollars — Rowe is a likely target of the investigation. His companies, R&D Testing and Drilling and Rowe Concessions, among others, have done more than $20 million in city business during the last eight years. A number of the contracts landed by Rowe were handed down without a bidding process, and those who questioned his company's work or refused to include it in a city project often faced Campbell's wrath.??