We have three people from Robin Hood Dell East. Al Martin, Edward Burnett, and Yvonne Downey, are you here? We certainly welcome you, all three, since you're from Dell East, and we're very happy to have you testify. All three come up. (Witnesses come forward.)
And I thank you for this opportunity to be amongst this august body.
And to speak in the City Council chambers. To the President and to all of the distinguished members of Council, to the Administration, officers, and special guests of the Council, we have been longtime members of the family of the Dell East, the official advocacy 261 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS board of the Dell East. And my purpose here today is to further acquaint you of the need to bring much-needed capital repairs to an institution within the urban community, the Robin Hood Dell East in East Fairmount Park. Our plight is not new. We have presented to this esteemed Council for the past three years, we have delivered a very refined and exhaustive analysis of existing conditions and long-term and an emergency plan to correct the problems at Dell East. This was a feasibility study of 1998. We are thankful for the assistance we have received by the honorable Councilmen of the 4th and 5th District, Councilman Nutter and Councilman Darrell Clarke. We hope to gain a consensus of the majority maintaining of the Council body to further support these efforts by maintaining and restoring the cultural landmark of the Robin Hood Dell East. We understand the City, through an outside independent consulting firm, has verified our study and concluded the repairs and improvements are essential. We, the family of the Dell East, implore you and ask you to continue to 262 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS assume the lead in providing the resources for a long-term capital restoration plan. Each year for the next five years will bring us closer to the goal of full restoration, providing we keep our eye on the prize. Dell East truly serves this great City of Philadelphia through its wholesome cultural programming by the Department of Recreation. The Dell East season ticket-holders are grateful for the affordable prices and high quality of presentations. The vast patrons of the Dell East would like to see this program flourish and be assured of its continuance as a quality venue for a quality city. Thank you for your individual commitments and we hope to see you at the Essence of Entertainment Series during the summer, or at one of the our classes or symposium at the Dell East Business Institute, now in its fourth semester, held in the fall and spring on the site of the Dell East. I just want to comment on that "keep your eye on the prize." We are a city of neighborhoods, and I'm pretty proud to be involved 263 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS with the Dell East because it was kind of being going down -- through whose fault, I don't know. So we decided to help move it along. And this is one of the institutions that the City of Philadelphia has that all of the neighborhoods gathered, there's not one district that doesn't pass through that gate at the Robin Hood Dell for cultural and entertainment. And my personal vision is to expand this thing and make the facility usable the whole year and to do whatever we can do. And I thank you, and Mr. Burnett may have something to tell you.
The stage floor and the speaker stacks are to be repaired this year as emergency work. That concludes what I have to say.
Your question is whether or not the stage floor and --
Speaker towers? 264 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS
Yes. Are they going to be prepared this year as emergency work?
Is there anyone here who can respond to your question? We'll listen to the rest of your testimony and then we'll ask someone to respond.
Thank you very much. Mr. Iffrig, you'll reply for us? Thank you gentlemen.
Thank you very much. Would you identify yourself again for the record, Mr. Iffrig.
Yes. This project will be put out for the stage floor and the speaker towers.
This project is being put 265 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS out now. We have the documents and we're putting it out to bid now.
And you say it's going out -- it's being prepared or going out for bid? I didn't understand you.
It's in the process of being wrapped up to be initiated. That means sent up to the Procurement Department to have it (indiscernible) and signed.
So, gentlemen, it is in the works, it will happen. They're working on the project, and we can see an enhanced Dell East. We thank you both for coming and for bringing it to our attention.
Councilman Nutter? 266 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS
Thank you, Councilman Clarke. Mr. Iffrig, with regard to the emergency project that you're talking about, you have all of the dollars that you need or anticipate for whatever this -- the ultimate bid is going to be on this project. What's the estimated cost of this work?
It should be under 200. I don't have the exact number, but the funding is in place.
You're welcome. 267 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS
Madam Chair, I'd like to ask Miss Griffith and the Commissioner -- you had a meeting about maybe two, three months ago about this issue, and we actually ended up talking about a broader issue as it relates to the operation end. (Witnesses come forward.)
And potential capital improvement and additions to the Dell. Can you kind of give me an update as to where we are with that?
Certainly. In response to your concerns and others, the Mayor asked the Chief of Staff to pull an inter-agency group together to really focus on some of the longer-term issues here, understanding that the emergency issues will be dealt with in an emergency way. And one of the things that's happened is that we've reached out to a design team to develop a new approach, a different approach that would actually be a not only a longer-term approach but one that we think we can sustain and maintain over time. I believe we have those 268 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS drawings in. There's also, I believe, $500,000 in -- I'm making sure -- I'm looking to make sure I'm right. Right, $500,000 set aside for design once the conceptual work is done and --
It must be a pretty big project. Do we have a sense of -- I mean, where are we going with this?
Maybe I can help shed some light. We were asked to participate in the meeting that you mentioned earlier through one of our City Capital Program Office requirements contracts with the design firm, we had them go out and do an assessment of the facility basically to confirm the assessment that had been done earlier, to make sure the conditions were as we had thought they were. We --
That was the booklet that was submitted by the Friends of the Dell?
Yes, yes. The Capital Program Office funded that assessment and also the 269 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS conceptual drawings as to how the facility could be used, both from a point of view of just fixing it as it is right now and keeping it as it is, as well as looking at an option of reducing the seating capacity and maybe providing some sort of a cover so it could be used --
Well, that was one of the things I believe that came out of the meeting we talked about, which was about the possibility of reducing it from, I believe, 6,000 to 3,000 seats because it wasn't being fully utilized. And by doing that, we could increase the lawn area, so you'd still have the lawn area for outside seating, but also it would create more of an intimate type of a facility and also to --
I don't recall that being discussed in that meeting. I know I got there a little late. Was that at the earlier part 270 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS of the meeting?
Yeah. It was discussed at the meeting with both City Planning and ourselves, and other people as well.
Frankly, I don't remember it being discussed at the meeting. I do remember a range of options being discussed after the meeting, and that was one of the range of options and one of the options that I believe the designers were asked to explore. But I think you're correct, Councilman, I don't think that there was --
All right. Believe it or not, we meet after you leave. (Laughter.)
So we did have a conceptual plan done and looked at for various options as well as some estimated costs. And they are very budgetary numbers at this point in time based on the existing conditions and the various 271 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS options to renovate it. The other thing that we --
Let's focus on the seat reduction 'cause that's -- that's kind of an issue to me because I know when we do have good shows, we tend to sell out, or give out, whatever it may be, and we have people sitting around the perimeter of the Dell because they can't get access, and why we would think about reducing the number of seats, I don't understand that thinking. I mean --
The only thing I can tell you, Councilman, is that was one of the options we were asked to look into, and we did it only as an option. We're not saying one option is preferred over the other; we were just asked to look at it from different viewpoints.
No, we did not. And I can say that we've just recently received some budgetary-type numbers on what the cost would be to do it under different scenarios. I can send that information over to you. 272 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS And the third thing is, we've actually talked to the Recreation Department about what the impact would be from their operation point of view to operate the facility and what they projected their income would be based on the number of performances held per year, saying that in the situation where it's only used for a limited time, as it is right now 'cause it's an open-air facility as opposed to a covered facility that could be used for a longer period of time during the year, and I believe we may have just received those numbers back, but I'm not sure, and I can get that information to you as well.
In the document that was submitted by the Friends of the Dell, I think it spoke of additional work other than the more immediate issues as it related to the stage and the speakers. In this assessment plan, did it speak to those particular issues, the Phase 1, 2, 3, 4 capital needs of the facility?
All of those issues from the original report were considered and looked into, and they were all included in all of the options that we looked at. 273 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS
So when we get our report back, that will be incorporated?
Yes. And I'll be happy to bring a copy of that report over to you and sit down if you'd like me to.
Thank you very much. Are there any more questions for our witnesses? (No questions.)
Commissioner Richard, let me not that we have seen you pretty regularly out there in the community, and we do appreciate all that you are doing, and we've very, very excited about this new computer program at 274 2/7/01 - CAPITAL BUDGET HEARINGS Kingsessing Recreation Center, but we thank you for all you're doing for our city and our recreation centers. Are there any more questions for these witnesses? (No further questions.)
Is there anyone else here today who would like to testify? Anyone else here today? (No response.)
All right. Then this hearing will be recessed until Tuesday, February 13th, at 9 a.m. Thank you all for your patience. (Adjourned at 5:15 p.m.) - - - 275 C E R T I F I C A T E WE HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Wednesday, February 7, 2001, were reported fully and accurately by us, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE BILL NO.'S 010001, 010002 ___________________________________, CARMEN J. BUCCA, Professional Reporter __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter