Philly councilman wants to protect Von Colln Field from Made in America damage

 Philadelphia City Councilman Bill Greenlee wants the Made in America concert organizers to be held responsible for any potential damage to Von Colln field in Fairmount.(Charlie Kaier/WHYY)

Philadelphia City Councilman Bill Greenlee wants the Made in America concert organizers to be held responsible for any potential damage to Von Colln field in Fairmount.(Charlie Kaier/WHYY)

The Made in America Festival concert is coming back to Philadelphia for a second year, and City Council wants to send a message to organizers.

A bill before the council calls for any event organizers who damage city property to bear the responsibility of repairing that damage. Von Colln Field at 22nd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue was destroyed by the Made in America event, said Councilman-at-large Bill Greenlee. Now that it’s been fixed up, he said he doesn’t want more problems this year.

“Through Council President [Darrell] Clarke, $300,000 was allocated to Von Colln Field,” Greenlee said. “If anyone sees that field now, I would dare say they would be very impressed.”

He’s pushing for concert organizers to put down a deposit amounting to twice the cost of those renovations to cover any damages if they want to use the field again as a staging area.

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“It would be a disaster for that field. It would basically destroy it again,” Greenlee said. “And all that good city money that has been put into it would be wasted after just one year.”

The bill was not approved before council’s summer recess and Greenlee knew that was going to happen, but said he thinks it sends a message to organizers of the event.

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Nutter says the organizers will not damage the field. They will use the same contractor that protects other major venues from damage in order to preserve the grass, he said. But if there is any damage, the organizers will be responsible for it under a soon-to-be-signed contract with the city.

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