The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 1

T1 and the SECTION ft Region MONDAY, MAY 24, 2010 South Jersey flic IPftilabclpfiia Inquirer WWW.PHILLY.COM Swim clubs losing members to the economy. Troubled waters in Cherry Hill iiii.miiji.j.. mi. in" pi tma. T-v ing slower than usual this season, president Jim Thompson said.

Membership for a family of five at Woodcrest costs $615, plus a $110 assessment to help cover the loan on a $500,000 pool installed five years ago. As memberships drop, Thompson is asking those remaining to help save money by reseed-ing the lawn and doing other upkeep that contractors once did. His board decided against cutting back pool hours, he said. "We're trying not to have our current members give up," he said. Like a number of South Jersey See CLUBS on B2 dues are slow in coming this season.

That has left clubs scrambling to find ways to make ends meet before Memorial Day weekend, when most kick off the season. Some pool leaders said that families had left citing financial reasons, and that trouble in the housing market had slowed neighborhood turnover and the rate at which young families with kids replace older ones. Once one of the town's largest clubs, Woodcrest has dropped from 600 member families to about 350 in the last three years. Fifty families left last year, and dues are com By Chelsea Conaboy INQUIRER STAFF WRITER The Gillooly family of Cherry Hill has made tough budget decisions to save money this summer. That extra week at the Shore? Cut.

A $685 membership to the private Barclay Farm swim club? Stays. "When you parse that out over the whole summer, it's so cheap for all of us," said Anne Gillooly. Other families are choosing differently. Total members in at least eight of the 13 clubs in Cherry Hill, including Barclay Farm, fell last year, according to the Cherry Hill Association of Pools. Some say APRIL SAUL Staff Photographer At the Barclay Farm swim club in Cherry Hill, member volunteer Rory Watkins, 1 8, sweeps out the pool in preparation for the season.

A' alung Students taking applied physics CLASSJtrACTS and design help find solutions to oniielfkigEd disabled people's daily problems. 0f Education a pass on funds for indigent 3 S. Jersey counties won't set up the trusts, objecting to a fee. ft 4. fa I 1 AKIRA SUWA Staff Photographer Isaac and Naomi Ohayon in front of the structure that has long fascinated them.

All the house needs now is a buyer. A church's storied road to revival 1 1 ii i ii I -B. i j1 By the time Isaac Ohayon was ready for the Lombard Central Presbyterian Church, the church was no longer ready for him. Once before the Moroccan-born, Israeli-trained builder had had his hands on the property, built in the heart of Philadelphia's African American community in 1850. Fifteen years ago, the vacant church was By Matt Katz INQUIRER STAFF WRITER In his waning days in office, Gov.

Jon S. Corzine went to a Camden soup kitchen to sign a law that homeless advocates had been dreaming about for years. The city's future mayor, Dana L. Redd, who as a state senator cosponsored the bill, stood beside Corzine as he authorized counties to create Homelessness Trust Funds, supported by $3 fees on documents filed with county clerks. The trust funds provide money for housing and other programs for the homeless at each county's discretion.

They have already been established in seven counties. But despite Redd's sponsorship and the signing venue, Camden County freeholders say they will not set up such a fund, calling it a tax. Freeholders in Burlington and Gloucester Counties won't establish the funds, either. Camden City has an estimated 3,700 homeless adults and children, and it has drawn international attention for the See CAMDEN on B3 i SHARON GEKOSKI-KIMMEL Staff Photographer Dennison Perez steers a Wii game at United Cerebral Palsy. With him are student Greg Lobanov, who helped test the adapted controller Perez is using, and Springside physics teacher Ellen Kruger.

Challenged to ease headed to sheriff's sale. For $35,000 Ohayon and his wife, Naomi, could have owned the Greek Revival edifice. "There were beautiful details left in the ceiling," says Ohay Daniel Rubin others challenges On-air icon 'Wee Willie' Webber dies 1 i He spanned generations as a children's TV host and radio DJ. By Walter F. Nacdele INQUIRER STAFF WRITER William W.

Webber, 80, a fixture on Philadelphia radio and TV for more than 50 years, died of a heart attack Sunday at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center on, a soft-spoken 48-year-old with graying curls, a hole in his jersey, and wood dust on his boots. "The mezzanine was still there, some of the woodwork. I thought I could restore the original pieces and create this funky, lofty space." But his business Masada Custom Building was only four years old, and he hadn't yet done many historic renovations around town. It was too big a project for the couple. Too soon.

In 2004, the Ohayons got a second chance. The price was steeper this time, $450,000 for the shell, and a shell it was. Pigeons were the only congregants. Holes pitted the roof. The only salvageable pieces were elements on the facade and some massive wooden ceiling trusses.

The Ohayons were still transfixed by the possibilities of the place. A one-of-a-kind home is what they envisioned the building's gutted 9,500 square feet filled with marble from Turkey, teak from Brazil, tiles from Italy, appliances from Germany. Two things they didn't count on. That by the time their construction was finished last sum-See HOUSE on B4 By Kathy Boccella INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Who would have a thought a cartoon cow and some high school kids could reach through the silent and remote world of Dennison Perez? Perez, 25, who has cerebral palsy and other disabilities, doesn't speak, stares at the floor, and tends to rock back and forth in his wheelchair. But as he played Wii's cow-racing game, steering a bovine through pastures and over fences on a large television screen, Perez's face lit up as if he were in a real-life running of the bulls.

"That's a week's worth of reaction from him," said Lylian Melendez, director of therapeutic activities at United Cerebral Palsy of Philadelphia, as she and other staff members cheered on Perez and his rampaging cow. Until recently, playing Wii, a popular activity at UCP, was out of the question for Perez because his stiff hands couldn't grasp a steering wheel or remote. That was where a posse of resourceful teens from the Springside School in Chestnut Hill came in. For the last four years, students taking a course in applied physics and design along with boys from Chestnut Hill Academy, who share courses with the See PHYSICS on B2 '1 ,1 while awaiting heart surgery there later this week, said his son, William W. Jr.

He lived on Rit-tenhouse Square. Known as "Wee Willie" at 6-foot-5, Mr. Webber was a workhorse, a host of children's TV shows and a radio disc jockey, often on the same days. In 1956, he became host of a Channel 6 two-hour morning cartoon show that ran into the '60s. -JJL William W.

Webber was proud of his long career. Elizabeth lybrand and Greg Lobanov, from Springside School and Chestnut Hill Academy, with other devices. From 1965 to 1975, he hosted an after-school cartoon show on Channel 17. And for three more years, his afternoon cartoon show was on Channel 48 Mr. Webber was especially proud, his son said, of "his longevity in Philadelphia." Inside New director at Settlement Music School Pop-up park in E.

Passyunk? The former head of Chicago Children's A cola-maker's contest may help a Choir will start at the end of August. B2. pedestrian oasis arise in S. Phila. B4.

See WEBBER on B6 ADVERTISEMENT MARLTON Come to Our Open House on Tuesday, May 25th BE AWARE OF THE SUDDEN SZVSX! km A TUT TT ATTHM Frnm Q-00AM to 1 WARNING SIGNS OF STROKE Trouble seeing in one or both eyes Trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination CALL 9-1-1 IMMEDIATELY Severe and unusual headache Hospital Learn about our Stroke Treatment Specialty Program Region's Leading Provider of Stroke Rehabilitation for Both In-Patient and Out-Patient.