They are sophisticated city dwellers who didn't embark on the project blindly, getting the OK to work on the park both from a staffer in Councilman Frank DiCicco's office and the Parks and Recreation Department.
The group's cleanup efforts - from clearing out overgrown weeds and grass to powerwashing the concrete and brick pavers - were so successful that Manton Street Park was featured on the South Philly Garden Tour in September, Berman said.
But the good news was turned upside down last month.
That's when the volunteers learned that in August the park, at 4th and Manton street, had been placed on a list of vacant lots the city wanted to sell to get rid of blighted properties .
Now Berman, Calter and other park volunteers are caught up in a government tailspin of miscommunication, outdated databases and a plan launched in April 2010 to rid the city of vacant lots.
It wasn't until residents saw surveyors on the property last month that they learned the park lots had been bundled for sale with a group of vacant lots across the city in an ordinance DiCicco introduced in May. The measure was passed by City Council in June and signed by Mayor Nutter in July.
Unfortunately, for the Manton Street volunteers, officials at Parks and Recreation had been relying on a 1990s-era database, which showed the lots as a city park, said Michael DiBerardinis, deputy mayor of environmental and community resources and commissioner of the Parks and Recreation Department.
"I feel bad about it and I'm sure they do, too." DiBerardinis said of the volunteers. "The assumption that it was in our inventory was not the right one."
The city began the process of selling the park in August, said John Herzins, deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Property.
And without their knowledge, the volunteers contend, much of the park - along with another lot next to it - was put up for auction Oct. 7.
