Template not recognizing conditional tags from widget plugin

I have set up a unique template to call in posts with a specified category. The template is essentially my index.php with a query to define the content. But the new template will not pull in a sidebar widget from the plug in Widget Logic — which uses conditional tags to define pages.

I’ve used the page, id-number and template conditional tags and none of them seem to work.

<?php
/*Template Name: FAQ*/
?>
<?php
/**
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Bitwork
* @since Bitwork 3
*/

get_header(); ?>
<?php if(!is_front_page()){ ?>
<div id=”header_inner”>
<div id=”headertext”>
<?php include_once (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/title.php’); ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php } ?>

<?php
if(is_front_page()){
$sideBefore = “<div id=’widget-home’>”;
$sideAfter = “</div>”;
}

?>
<!– BEGIN CONTENT –>
<div id=”container_content”>
<div id=”padding_content”>
<div id=”maincontent”>
<div id=”main”>
<div id=”content”>
<!–NOTE: SPECIFIC CODE FOR FAQ TEMPLATE PAGE–>
<?php $paged = (get_query_var(‘paged’ )) ? get_query_var(‘paged’ ) : 1;

query_posts(“cat=6&paged=$paged”); ?>
<?php
/* Run the loop to output the posts.
* If you want to overload this in a child theme then include a file
* called loop-index.php and that will be used instead.
*/
get_template_part( ‘loop’, ‘index’ );
?>
</div><!– end of content –>
</div><!– end of main –>
<div id=”side”>
<?php echo $sideBefore;?>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php echo $sideAfter;?>
</div><!– end of side –>
</div><!– end of maincontent –>
</div>
<div class=”clr”></div>
</div>
<!– END OF CONTENT –>

</div><!– end of centercolumn –>
</div><!– end of main container –>
<?php get_footer(); ?>