Parks and Rec Dept. Debuts
by KYW's Hadas Kuznits
Philadelphia's parks department and the department of recreation have merged, kicking off the collaboration with new projects in Fishtown.
The athletic field at the Shissler Recreation Center is being turned into a green city space.
"All this gravel you see here is going to be a beautiful grass and dirt ballfield, " said new parks and recreation department commissioner Michael Diberardinis. "And then it'll be a trail that is landscaped that can take you from the [Market-Frankford] el to PennTreaty Park. That's sort of the physical improvement, we will start using the park for programs for kids who don't live near the big acres of Fairmount Park."
He says they're celebrating the merger of the departments, as well as the kick-off of new projects to make this community more beautiful:
"They're two very different cultures. One is a program culture and the other is a land-care program. So we're merging two very different work styles into a single department."
