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October 2,
2008
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Article in the South Philadelphia Review
concerning
problems with
BOK/Southern field events
Scoring negative points
by
Caitlin Meals
Weeks after the athletic super site opened, the
community has a list of concerns several
organizations are working to address.
click here for complete story |
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September 24,
2008
The SPCCA has been working together with the school board and
athletic directors for several years and is continuing to
work with them. The school board representatives
made it repeatedly clear that the Philadelphia School
District is committed to resolving all of the issues that
had been brought to their attention by the neighbors.
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September 9,
2008
Games have
begun being played at the field and the following problems have been occurring:
- Abusive language to some neighbors by kids going to
and from the games
- Banging on cars as the kids pass through the
neighborhood
- People tailgating in the athletic field parking lots
- School buses dropping off kids on Bigler St. instead of
10th St.
Tony has been communicating these issues to the school
board as they have been reported to him. These
will be addressed at the September 24th meeting with the
school board.
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August
29,
2008
The inaugural football game
between Bok and Southern high schools.
Other teams have
begun practicing on the field. Questions about
the use of the parking lots during
Phillies games have been submitted to the school board. |
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sJuly, 2008
Work
completed on field and practice games scheduled for early
August. |
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May, 2008
Many finishing touches are being
completed in the BOK field complex. The water
drainage problem in the baseball field is being looked into
by the school district.
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February
21, 2008
The construction of BOK field is
nearing completion and the 'Southern-BOK Supersite Committee'
has been formed. The first meeting was held at the SPCCA office on
2/21/08.
This
committee is made up of administrators of the School District of
Philadelphia, representatives of the SPCCA (Tony Greco,
Chuck Putnam), 4th district Police representative, Phila School District
Security Unit and representatives from the offices of Council
President Anna Verna, City Councilman Frank DiCicco, State Senator Vincent
Fumo and the Sports Complex Special
Services District (John Sfrisi, Joseph Messina).
Our first meeting
covered (1) planning and general security of the facility: responsibility of
the securing the facility will be jointly shared by the 4th District
Police Dept along with Phila School District Security Unit
(2) conditions for the use of the field: The school district will manage the
permitting process and the committee will monitor the organizations that
will be applying for the use of the facility. Note: Organizations that are
granted use of the facility will be charged a fee per event or per game.
They will also have to provide insurance for liability and property damage.
(3) Decorative fencing for the facility was scheduled to be erected in June.
The SPCCA has been notified that this may begin sooner. No firm date
has been announced yet.
The school district announced
at this meeting that they have committed additional funding for the
installation of an irrigation system for the two 'natural turf' baseball
fields. This will assure that these fields will be properly watered to
maintain a natural grass growth.
This committee will meet on an
'as needed' basis to address field operations, permitting and general
issues regarding the usage of the field and facilities. The
application process for the use of the field is being clarified.
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May, 2007 Renovation finally started!
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January 16, 2007 Update
Construction
was been delayed because the Water Department had not
yet approved the water plan permits. After Tony Greco
called several times in December and
January, councilwoman Verna's office
called several times at Tony's request.
Tony received a call
this week from the Ron Cohen at the Philadelphia School
District. He called to say that the Water Department
has now approved the project! Mr. Cohen stated that
the permits should be ready for pickup shortly. Hopefully
construction is not too far off at this point.
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Monday, June 12, 2006 -
Stella Maris School Hall - 7:00pm
The purpose of this meeting was to report to the community the
staging activities and the
actual construction that
will take place over the next year.
The project architects and managers made presentations and
informed residents as to what to expect and to help us
maintain quality of life during construction.
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6/15/06 Fielding concerns
at 10th & Bigler -
South Philadelphia Review
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May 8, 2006
The renovation of the offices of the school district and the SPCCA has been completed.
Furniture
is being ordered and the final details of the office are being worked out.
We may possibly have our June
meeting in the new space.
March, 2006
Pictured are Joe Russo of Citizen's Alliance, Ruth
Arnao,
Executive Director of Citizen's Alliance, Tony Greco, President
of SPCCA and John Sfrisi (SPCCA Board Member and Sports
Complex Special Services District Representative)
The Citizen's Alliance For Better
Neighborhoods granted to the
SPCCA a check for $10,000 to
be used for operating and towards
expenses of rehabilitating the new office at
Southern/Bok field.
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Summer, 2005 -
Winter 2006: Environmentally hazardous waste was found and was
removed from several areas in the BOK field complex. Final
plans for the field design were approved and sent to architects
for fine tuning. Work on the offices of the field house are
scheduled to begin in Spring of 2006.
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April, 2005 - Tony
Greco
received the $50,000 grant from the State of PA for the
rehabilitation of the office building on the BOK field site so we
can relocate the SPCCA office there as we promised the community.
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March, 2005 -
It was announced that bidding on
project scheduled to begin in early June, 2005
and work would begin in August, 2005.
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1/10/05 Community Meeting on Southern/Bok Field
Renovation
The purpose of the meeting was to
present to the community the final design of the facility and to
convey as much information as possible on the construction plan,
future usage, security and any other relevant information.
The following organizations and individuals were at the meeting to speak and answer questions: School District
officials, Fr. Olivere from Saints John Neumann/Maria
Gorretti High School, Capt Zaffino, 4th Dist Police and
leaders of the South Phila. Communities Civic Assn. and the
Project Committee.
There were presentations by the architects for the
renovation and the company installing the lighting for the
athletic field.
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12/2/04
Southern/BOK Field Makeover -
South Philadelphia Review
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Dec. 16, 2004 - Southern/Bok
Field committee meeting:
Details of the revised design were reviewed and discussed. Several
concerns were brought up, discussed and will be addressed at the community
meeting. Planning details were begun to clarify additional information
to be presented at the community meeting on January 10th, 2005.
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Oct.,
2004: The planned renovations for Southern/BOK field have gone
over budget. Renovations can not be started until this is
resolved. The plans are currently being reviewed to determine
where costs can be reduced. This will not affect the money
allocated for new fencing.
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Sept. 15, 2004
The
Sports Complex Special Services District held a meeting and as part of their agenda approved
allocating approximately $286,000 to be used for fencing at
Southern/Bok field.
Also, Tony Greco has been notified by the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Economic Development,
that the funding application the SPCCA filed for $50,000
has been approved. As soon as a contract can be forwarded to
Tony Greco for his signature, the State will allocate the funds.
John
Sfrisi and Tony have met with the Redevelopment Authority of the City
of Philadelphia to discuss plans for the RDA to perform any work on
the project that we the community wish to have done.
The first order
of business was to have fencing installed with the funds that
are being provided by the Sports District. The funds from the state
will be used to rehabilitate the office building at the field so that
the civic association can move their office on site. Funds for the
project will not be deposited with the School District, but will be
deposited with the Redevelopment Authority when they are prepared to
perform work requested. The details will be worked out at a later
date.
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Summer 2004: Plan was revised including suggestions from the
SPCCA committeei
Surveyor at the
field
May, 2004
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Environmental
Research being done
to assure the safety
of the renovations for our community.
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September, 2004: $286,000 approved for fencing.
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03/02/04 BOK Committee Meeting reviewed
rehabilitation plans and presented concerns to the athletic directors from Stella Maris School and Saints
John Neumann/Maria Goretti High School and members of the boards of the
Sports Complex Special Services District and the Citizens Alliance for
Better Neighborhoods.
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| In November 2003, the South Philadelphia Communities Civic Association was
contacted by the School district of Philadelphia at the request of President
Anna Verna. The reason for contacting the SPCCA was to explain their
plans to rehabilitate the fields at the Southern/Bok athletic facility. The
school District made a very professional and impressive presentation to the
civic association. Since it has been a long time goal of the SPCCA to
improve the decaying and deplorable conditions at the facility, we decided to
partner with the School District on this very worthwhile project in order to
beautify and improve the neighborhood, help increase the value of our homes
and to provide a state of the art facility to be used by the entire community,
especially our own children.
Top of Page |
| On January 12,2004 a community meeting was held at the Stella Maris School
Hall where the school District made a formal presentation to the neighbors.
The meeting and the project details were reported in the South Philadelphia
Review as the front page story on January 15, 2004.
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| At the meeting the School District reported that it has a budget of about
2.5 million that would allow for the installation of a synthetic field with a
rubber track on the Southern field location. It would also include such
items as new grandstands, fencing around the field/track, security lighting, a
new scoreboard, re-seeding of the Bok field and the basketball courts (courts
will be eliminated) and the revitalization of the toddler play are along
Bigler Street.
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| This alone would be a great
accomplishment, however the SPCCA wants to see the entire facility improved
since we have the opportunity, and which may never present itself again.
Therefore the SPCCA is working very hard to obtain additional funding
so that additional items can be improved. Those items would include
secure maintenance-free fencing around the 13th street driveway and moving the
entrance from Bigler Street to 10th Street.
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| More improvements can be done depending on the amount of funding the SPCCA
is able to secure. The additional improvements done as a result of the
funding secured by the SPCCA, will be done on a priority basis.
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| The problems we have had in the past
were due to the lack of routine maintenance to the field, and no patrolling by
School District Security or Police. Another important item that
contributed to our past problems was the lack of involvement and control by
the community. To correct this going forward, the SPCCA formed a
"Revitalization Committee" made up of several area neighbors, representatives
of the civic association, a police representative, members of the School
District, the athletic directors from Stella Maris School and Saints
John Neumann/Maria Goretti High School and members of the boards of the
Sports Complex Special Services District and the Citizens Alliance for
Better Neighborhoods.
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| The initial purpose of this committee is to deal with the issues that
arise during the planning and construction stages of the project, and then the
operation stage when the project is completed. During the operations
stage the most important duty will consist of direct involvement in the permit
process. This would include controlling the use of the facility, the
conditions of such use and the time period of usage. |
South
Philadelphia Communities Civic Association
