Official: New Youth Study Center is right on schedule

Everett Gillison, the city's deputy mayor for public safety, said yesterday that the new Youth Study Center is on schedule to open in West Philly in October 2011.

For City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., whose district is home for three years to the temporary facility in East Falls that is holding youths in trouble with the law, that's a day to look forward to.

"Three years and a day can't come quick enough for me," said Jones after the latest trouble at the aging temporary facility.

Pipes in an unoccupied part of the state-owned former Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute burst on Sunday, causing a flood that damaged heating and electrical equipment, leading to a 16-hour power outage.

The facility, opened Oct. 4 when the city closed the former Youth Study Center on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, also caused concerns in the surrounding neighborhoods after seven youths escaped in October.

While temperatures in the areas housing youths plummeted on Sunday, an emergency generator kicked on to maintain power to the systems used to secure and monitor the facility, said Gillison, who disputed a claim from the head of the prison guards union that children held there could have taken over the building.

"Those systems were up and running and went on as soon as the power was interrupted," said Gillison, adding that two other generators due to go on-line next week would have kept the facility warm if they had been ready to operate during the outage.

Gillison said the facility's security measures have been upgraded since October, with the help of the state departments of corrections and general services.

"As far as a security point of view, I think we have a handle on it all," Gillison said.

City Council approved $97.5 million in December 2007 for a new Youth Study Center at 48th and Market streets, on part of the sprawling one-time Provident Mutual Life Insurance campus. The city has since cleared the lot and zoning was approved by Council in November.

Mayor Nutter this month included $110 million for the center in a wish-list submitted for federal funding of local projects.

Rob Dubow, the city's finance director, worried three months ago that the tanking national bond market might force the city to wait on the new center. Dubow yesterday said the bond market has rebounded enough to likely keep the center on schedule.

"I think the market has settled down somewhat," Dubow said. "It may cost a little more than it would have two years ago." *