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New Parks and Rec board draws 207 applicants

A week before the March 9 deadline, City Council had only 11 applications to fill nine seats on the new Commission of Parks and Recreation. They received 207.

The board is to have a prominent role in creating rules and regulations for a new city agency resulting from the merging of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation, effective July 1.

On Wednesday morning, Council's Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs began interviewing the first 39 candidates in an open session. Council is to submit between 18 and 25 nominees to Mayor Nutter, who will appoint nine members to the 15-member board, the other six positions filled by department heads.

Some familiar names on the list include Vincent Fenerty, executive director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority; Joseph Manko and Debra Wolf Goldstein, current Fairmount Park commissioners; Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn-Praxis, an adjunct of Penn's design school; and David Thornburgh, executive director of Penn's Fels Institute of Government and son of former governor Dick Thornburgh.

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