Philadelphia Dell East in need of overhaul

The Robin Hood Dell East is unsafe for concerts this summer, and a dilapidated camp for the city's poorest children should be shut down for good, administration officials told City Council yesterday.

In a briefing, a city-hired engineer said cracked, uneven and sagging concrete at the Dell East puts concert-goers at risk of injury, and recommended closing the amphitheater for the 2008 season.

At the same meeting, the recreation department said Camp William Penn, the 677-acre facility in the Poconos, should be closed because "the kids that go there don't want to go back" to it.

Clay Armbrister, Mayor Nutter's chief of staff, recommended a complete overhaul of the concrete, draining, wiring and seating for the Dell East, at Ridge Avenue and 33d Street, for at least the 2008 season.

In its place, the city will offer a series of free concerts at other Fairmount Park sites and in recreation centers in areas "that rarely see outside support," said Erica Atwood, deputy city representative.

Concerts would be targeted for areas including Kingsessing, Strawberry Mansion, Kensington, Roxborough, Olney and and Point Breeze.

Council members were alarmed last month when Armbrister said the Dell Eastprobably would close for 2008. Fearing that construction would take up two summer seasons, Council asked Armbrister to seek alternatives. He promised to discuss the options once an engineering report, which he presented yesterday, was complete.

Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., whose district includes the Dell East, said he did not need to see the engineer's report after touring the site recently.

"I saw a state of disrepair that is not befitting folks who are looking for even a low-cost alternative," Jones said.

But rebuilding the Dell East promises to be anything but simple. Armbrister said the cost was now estimated at $4.5 million - not the $3 million budgeted by the administration.

The city-owned facility, built in the 1930s, has deteriorated with erosion problems and controversy over its management, but has also provided big names at low cost - last year most notably Aretha Franklin.

William Carapucci, acting recreation commissioner, said the extensive physical improvements at Camp William Penn were far too expensive to justify a camp with dwindling attendance despite the city's efforts to promote it.

Carapucci encouraged Council members to visit the camp, built in 1929 in Marshalls Creek, in Monroe and Pike Counties, to find out why 22 percent of campers returned to it, compared with 70 to 90 percent of campers in other programs.