Money on their minds

NEWS

The first of eight Town Hall meetings with the mayor and his cabinet brought 400 residents to South Philadelphia High.

By Amanda Snyder

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Dec. 4, 2008

Mayor Michael Nutter put in overtime last week, staying 40 minutes past the expected end time of 9 p.m., at Southern addressing residents' concerns over budget cuts. Staff photo by Greg Bezanis

Following rallies to save local fire stations and libraries, the next stop for those overwrought by the city's slated cuts to close a $108 million budget gap was South Philadelphia High School. Even though it was days before a major holiday, the first of eight Town Hall meetings Nov. 25 brought out 400 people, all ready to tell Mayor Michael Nutter and his cabinet what was on their minds.

"These were not easy circumstances and they were not easy decisions," Nutter said of the proposed budget cuts to the crowd at 2101 S. Broad St. "They were very heartfelt. They are, in many instances, certainly, literally, against the grain of what I have voted as a public official for 15 years, but we are facing, as I have mentioned earlier, a financial crisis of a magnitude that has not been seen before.

"We will do everything we can, but we must also be realistic that we cannot continue to do everything that we've done for a long, long period of time," he said.

Announced Nov. 6, the slashes to city services have left fire companies, libraries, pools and ice rinks out in the cold. Seven fire companies are expected to fold, with their firefighters transferred, and Ladder 11, Engine 10, at 12th and Reed streets, and Engine 1 at 711 S. Broad St. are on the chopping block.

Recreation services, including 11 out of 54 libraries, are under the knife. The Fumo Family branch, 2437 S. Broad St., and Queen Memorial, 1201 S. 23rd St., are on the list, while the area's only ice rink, Rizzo Rink at 1101 S. Front St., will be spared. Almost 10 pools in the area, including Marian Anderson, 17th and Fitzwater; Barry, 18th and Bigler; Chew, 19th and Washington; Stinger Square, 32nd and Dickinson; O'Connor, 23rd and South; Vare, 26th and Morris; Ford, Seventh and Snyder; Hawthorne, 13th and Christian; and Sacks, Fourth and Washington., are all to be closed. Pools, unlike libraries, are expected to re-open, but in limited numbers.

Kicking off the two-hour session last Tuesday was Nutter's Nov. 14 visit to Washington, D.C. Did he receive a verbal commitment from President-Elect Barack Obama for a piece of the government-approved $700 billion bailout, the crowd wanted to know first and foremost.

"No one made a commitment at the moment to give us any money," Nutter said. "On the other hand, no one threw me out of their office ... I didn't ask them for a bailout. I asked them to access to credit markets and the ability to borrow since virtually nobody wants to lend any money to the cities."

Richard Panichelli was concerned about unpaid taxes, namely those on the recently published list of the city's business tax delinquents who owe $50,000 or more, for a total of $27 million.

"The city does not move aggressively enough," the resident of Juniper and Reed streets said after the meeting. "If all this money is owed, we can't write this off as this is just a loss."

While she understood the swimming pool cuts, Brenda Boyd of 16th Street and Passyunk Avenue said she did not understand why the libraries are being targeted.

"What are the kids going to do? [The libraries] have computers and after-school programs," Boyd, a block captain for the 2200 block of South Bancroft Street, said prior to the meeting.

Joann Sapienza and Louise Milillow, both of Ninth and McKean streets, were just as worried about the children.

"We really want to see what's going on and save the libraries and pools for the kids," Sapienza, who thinks Nutter should cut payroll and not build casinos, said before the session.

Payroll was the first to go, Nutter later told the crowd.

"I did," Nutter responded to a resident who asked why he didn't reduce his take-home. "I cut my pay 10 percent. Everybody on this stage has a pay cut."

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