The Robin Hood Dell East 2008 summer concert series will go on whether or not the long-deteriorating venue is closed for repairs, Mayor Nutter’s top aide said yesterday.
Nutter’s chief of staff, Clay Armbrister, told City Council that the administration would find a venue other than the Dell East to hold the concerts or would consider a construction schedule to allow the Dell East to still play host this summer.
“It is our commitment to have entertainment — somewhere,” Armbrister said.
No decisions will be made, Armbrister said, until an engineer’s report determines whether the outdoor amphitheater, which holds 9,000 people, is safe. The most urgent question: whether erosion to the concrete and the ground underneath has created a safety hazard. That report is expected in three weeks.
Council members were up in arms when Armbrister told them in a budget hearing last week that the Dell East would close down for the summer while the city made $3 million in repairs to concrete, drainage, lighting, and replacement of all 5,800 seats (the lawn area seats 3,000 and there is room for 200 wheelchairs).
Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, chair of the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, said she had a private conversation with Nutter about the lack of notice Council had received, but that he also had assured her that the series would find a home.
“The question is — what venue,” she said.
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