By Elizabeth Stieber
Times Staff Writer
Warm weather brought a number of neighborhood kids who live near Frankford’s Deni Park out to shoot hoops, ride bikes, swing on the swings and enjoy the remaining hours of daylight last Thursday.
A week before, they couldn’t do most of those activities on the playground, at Adams Avenue and Church Street.
Bent or missing rims and backboards have been replaced on the basketball courts. The broken swings were fixed and the baseball field was cleaned up.
But despite the recent improvements, Deni still needs a lot of work. The basketball-court pavement is cracked and strewn with glass. The sliding boards are marred by graffiti, and what was once a tennis court is nothing more than a vacant lot.
“This park has been like this for years,” said Tony Austin, 14, after completing a layup on the basketball court. “The only thing good right now is the baseball field.”
Community leaders are hoping to change that. About a dozen residents gathered last Thursday at St. Joachim’s School, just a block away from where the youngsters were playing at Deni Playground. Their goal was to devise a strategy to make the playground a fun and safe place.
They’re interested in re-forming the Deni Advisory Council, dedicated to working with the city Department of Recreation to restore and maintain the playground.
The advisory council disbanded four years ago, but the idea to revive it came during an East Frankford Civic Association meeting last month.
Bill Cross, a resident who for years cleaned up the playground on his own, discussed Deni’s decrepit condition at last week’s meeting.
After more than eight years of sweeping glass and covering graffiti, Cross, who is retired, urged the community to fight and have their playground restored.
East Frankford Civic Association president Peggy Hoch and Joe Zaleski, an aide to City Councilman Rick Mariano (D-7th dist.), decided to take action.
Three weeks ago, Hoch and Zaleski met with Carlton Williams, deputy commissioner of maintenance, capital programs and facilities for the Department of Recreation.
Since then, workers with CLIP (the Community Life Improvement Program) have pulled the weeds that were growing out of the cracked pavement.
The recreation department installed the basketball backboards and rims, fixed the swings and one of the fences, and cut the grass around the baseball diamond. Playground equipment also is being ordered, and Mariano’s office is talking with the recreation department about hiring at least one part-time employee to work at the playground.
But Zaleski said there’s a lot more work to do.
The basketball court still needs to be resurfaced; the graffiti needs to be cleaned from the jungle gyms.
Residents need to decide what the future holds for the paved section of the playground that used to be a tennis court.
All of these plans, Zaleski said, could be topics for future meetings.
Zaleski recommended not only monthly meetings but suggested that the advisory council meet routinely with the area’s recreation department district supervisor. He also urged members to contact local state legislators to ask about obtaining money for the playground, and to meet with Officer Gary Skerski, community relations officer for the 15th Police District.
“If there’s a problem in the playground, we should fix it,” Zaleski said.
Some of the residents, including Charlie Casaleno, suggested forming athletic teams to boost community involvement in the playground.
“If you get the little kids involved, that’s something that works its way up,” Casaleno explained. “You get the fathers and mothers involved. Everybody gets involved when it’s little kids.”
Though they want to clean and restore Deni, residents also voiced concerns about upkeep of the playground.
They fear that, within weeks of repairing it, the playground will once again become an eyesore because of dog feces, graffiti and broken glass left behind by people who hang out and drink there at night.
“Even with somebody there, things are still going to happen,” Zaleski told residents. “But we should not be deterred, and we should meet and discuss issues regularly, because things are going to begin happening.”
Meanwhile, neighborhood kids will continue to congregate at the playground, taking advantage of the new equipment and hoping it will look even better in the weeks to come.
Sharnell Hatchett, 12, looked up at the shiny orange basketball rim, which gleamed as it caught the light from the setting sun, and commented, “I hope they stay up there.” ••
If you are interested in joining the Deni Advisory Council or would like to start an athletic league at Deni Park, contact Councilman Rick Mariano’s office, 215-686-3448.
Reporter Elizabeth Stieber can be reached at 215-354-3036 or estieber@phillynews.com