The tension in the room was tangible at the beginning
of the first meeting between the public and the Water
Tower committee of the Chestnut Hill Community Association
on July 18 in the recreation center gymnasium.
The ad hoc committee was created in March to consider
options for “the CHCA partnering with the City
of Philadelphia to expand the recreational opportunities”
at the Water Tower. Last week’s meeting —
the first with the public — followed the distribution
of a CHCA survey about the recreation center.
Committee member Bob Previdi invited the approximately
50 community members present to share ideas about the
Water Tower with the group so that they could base future
plans on the interests of the neighbors.
Quickly, however, Previdi and the other three members
of the CHCA committee present were put on the defensive
by concerned audience members and members of the Water
Tower Advisory Council, a volunteer group made up of
two representatives from each of the Water Tower’s
clubs as well as at-large members of the community that
assist in the running of the building and programs.
“We’re here, we’ve been here for
40-some years and you’ve never come to our meetings,”
said advisory council vice-president Sarah Maneely.
She told the committee that while the advisory council
welcomed the help and concern of the CHCA, “we
don’t welcome learning about it first in the Chestnut
Hill Local.”
Previdi said that the committee had invited advisory
council president Barbara Diaz to a meeting, but she
had not shown up. Another member of the advisory council,
Fred Williams, argued in a prepared statement that no
CHCA members had shown up to a council meeting in May,
despite invitations.
The major concern of the advisory council members
was the possibility of a CHCA “takeover.”
Many people in the audience were clearly uncomfortable
with the idea of a shift from public to private ownership,
which they worried would open the building to unwelcome
developments in the future. The CHCA is a private corporation
that manages the non-profit Chestnut Hill Community
Fund, so deeding the center to the CHCA would legally
transfer the building out of public hands.
The advisory council also felt that the committee’s
actions were inappropriate, and they should have started
by attending council meetings and working through the
structure of the already established group.
“We need our roof fixed, we need help. There’s
no doubt about that. But when we as an advisory council
read in the paper that someone’s going to take
over the operation of the facilities of the Water Tower
recreation center, we get mad. And that’s where
the advisory council stands,” said one member.
Previdi tried to assure the audience early in the
meeting that “a CHCA takeover is far in the future”
and that they were still at the gathering information
stage. The audience responded with shouts of “How
long is far?” and “We don’t want it
ever!” followed by applause.
Later, Previdi and committee chair Tia Burke repeatedly
denied having ever used the word “takeover”
in speaking to the Local, and suggested that the idea
was never considered.
“None of us on the committee have any ability
to affect what the Local publishes and when the Local
used that term [takeover] it wasn’t quoting anyone,
nobody was identified,” said Burke. “And
we were all thinking about it too when we found out
[from the Local] that what we were doing was trying
to figure out how to take over the Water Tower.”
Local articles from over the past five months report
that at CHCA meetings the group considered assuming
operations of the Water Tower as one of many options,
including a public-private partnership between the city
and the CHCA and a lease agreement, among others. In
an interview with a Local reporter earlier this month,
Previdi said that the purpose of this initial meeting
was to ask the question: “Do the people in the
community think the place is the best it can be?”
From there, the committee could consider what to do
next, he said. Asked about the possibility of the CHCA
assuming operations, Previdi said: “It’s
certainly not something we should be afraid of.”
Confronted at the meeting with the level of hostility
toward the idea of privatization, Previdi eventually
promised that a takeover was not intended and that the
building’s status would not be changed.
“It will remain public. Absolutely it’s
going to remain public. Nothing less,” assured
Previdi.
After bad feelings between the CHCA and the advisory
council were aired, the meeting moved on to what neighbors
wanted to see happen with the rec center. Major concerns
were the roof, playground, plumbing and sewage, the
parking and traffic situation, crime, the fields, the
lights, and the memorial. Despite an almost unanimous
agreement that these issues needed addressing, the question
of funding provoked both ideas and frustration.
There was debate over whether the recreation center
should seek funding from private sources and fundraising,
or from the city. The city has already received bids
for fixing the dangerously deteriorated roof, which
it estimates will cost $450,000 to repair.
“Money can be secured for major expenditures…from
the city,” argued Williams. “It has been
done before and it will be done again. What is required
is a massive political campaign, which needs the community,
the Water Tower advisory council, the CHCA, individuals,
and all interested parties to combine efforts with a
dedicated small group to oversee all aspects.”
Dennis Primavera, president of the Chestnut Hill Youth
Sports Club, disagreed. “The city, as far as the
Father’s Club is concerned, is not the answer.
A takeover is not the answer either, but we need funds,”
he said.
Suggestions for possible fundraisers included holding
a “fun day,” a walkathon, or a donations
drive. Funds could go toward matching $200,000 that
Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller’s office has allocated
through the city’s capitol budget to fix the roof,
and then to issues like plumbing and parking. Many in
the audience felt that the city’s estimate for
the roof was too high, but Water Tower director Tom
Piskorski argued that they had no choice but to go through
city channels if the building is to remain public.
After a discussion of many of the Water Tower’s
problems, Maneely, of the advisory council, pointed
out that in fact her group has already initiated many
improvements, but these often go unmentioned.
“Has anybody noticed any improvements in the
landscaping? The fact that there is no trash out on
the front curb when you pull up,” she asked. “The
building has been painted inside. Obviously every time
it rains we have to paint over again, but I would like
it to be acknowledged that there are improvements going
on.”
In addition to agreeing about what the Water Tower
needed in terms of repairs, the crowd agreed about what
the recreation center did not need: more programs.
One audience memeber said he didn’t know where
one could find more hours in the day to introduce more
programming, and others agreed that they wanted nothing
changed in that respect. In his prepared statement,
Williams responded heatedly to a comment from Tia Burke,
who was quoted in the Local on April 14 as saying that
the “center is fairly underutilized given the
size of the space.”
“For the last 40 years there have been dynamic
programs of all sorts to attract the community. The
statement of underutilization is a lie — a lie
that has not been supported by evidence,” said
Williams. “I ask both the committee and the Local
to stop making derogatory statements about our programs
unless you can prove specifically your point.”
Despite the rocky moments and initial hostility, at
the end of the evening both members of the CHCA and
the advisory council felt they had made some progress.
“We were happy to dispel some negative feelings
and I hope we can all pull together,” said Previdi
after the meeting. “The advisory council members
offered a lot of good advice and we are going to follow
up with them.”
Maneely also thought they had moved forward. “I
think it was productive,” she said of the meeting.
“And I think it will continue to be productive
if we stay focused on the fundraising.”
The CHCA committee hopes to have another meeting with
the community some time after Labor Day, when more results
from the community survey are available.
