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Monitors At President's House To Be Replaced Early 2012

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Visitors at the President's House on Independence Mall will have to wait a while more before components are operational, again.

The President's House features five motion-activated monitors that are supposed to show videos telling the stories of slaves who lived there when George Washington was President. Most don't work, one is missing.

Emanuel Kelly's architectural firm is in charge of the project. He blames the manufacturer, "The manufacturer didn't do the proper testing for water tightness as well as heat and ventilation, so they were installed and the first thing is they began to leak."

He says the first replacement goes in next week.

"The prep work is underway to retrofit with the new Suntronic monitor. We're going to install that and look at the operation for 30 days before installing the other four."

The $10-million project opened last December. Within months, the monitors started leaking, then failing in the summer heat. Kelly says those problems should now be history.

Reported by Lynne Adkins KYW Newsradio 1060

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