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Friday, June 6, 2014

Broad Channel Bits



By Dan Guarino
Next Friday is the Shad Creek Association’s Annual Golf Outing. It starts at 3 p.m. on June 13. If you have not already, contact Mike Kelly at 917-868-4453 or michael_ p_kelly@yahoo.com to register your foursome.
Seventy-five dollars per golfer includes beer, soda and water at the course, and t-shirts and other swag. And it includes an awards party and dinner at the Shad Creek’s clubhouse.
Not golfing? Enjoy the party for $30 per person. Don’t forget that there will be raffles and fifty-fifty’s.
There is a lot of road work going on on Cross Bay right now in Broad Channel. Crews have been working along the west side to replace old broken sidewalks and curbs. As of early last week, they already paved the road near the Cross Bay Bridge toll plaza.
Cement trucks, workers and cordoned off work areas slowed Monday morning traffic heading toward Rockaway. On the northbound side, where I was parked, cars and trucks were backed up onto the bridge.
According to the BC Civic the street raising project for West 11th, 12th and 13th Roads is on schedule. Step one will be taking out the striping along the Boulevard median and putting in signs to let people know it’s okay to park there. This is meant for neighbors who won’t have access to parking on those streets while work is going.
When work starts in June, please be considerate and don’t park there if you don’t have to. A Broad Channelperson may need that space.
Major construction will start in June with the bulkhead and cofferdam work at the ends of the blocks.
With the help of Councilman Eric Ulrich, BC Civic officials and Con Edison representatives were able to meet and discuss the relocation of the light poles while work is going on. This piece of the construction puzzle could have really slowed down the project.
Fern Weinreich is the designated NYC Department of Design and Construction community liaison forBroad Channel for the street raising project. The plan is to have a DDC liaison office on West 12th Road to deal with any community issues as they come up.
After coming from an event late Friday, I was talking with someone about all the interesting happenings across Rockaway last weekend alone. All sounded great, but there’s no way to be at them all.
After some thought he said, “There are just too many things going on. That’s the problem!”
Given that, my thanks to all who came out to the YANA 2nd Annual Community Fair on Saturday, May 31. Thanks to Rockaway’s Jammin’ Jon Kiebon who organized the great music, I got to play and sing on a day filled with talented musicians. And I unplugged and got off stage just before the rain came down.
If you’re up for a little further drive, I will be playing at the Arts In The Plaza outdoor festival in Long Beach on Saturday, July 5. Also playing will be Rockaway’s own John Simonelli, who’s setting up the music, Guy Nevirs and other great music makers.
Years ago, when my grandchildren Sam and Isabella were going to PS 47, I would often come home to cheery phone messages. “Good evening, parents,” a bright voice would say after the beep. “This is Mrs. Moynagh calling with just a few reminders…” I miss those calls.
BC Civic Association President Dan Mundy Jr. had some good words for Councilman Ulrich in the last newsletter.
He said, “Thanks to the efforts of Councilman Eric Ulrich and his Participatory Budgeting program, Broad Channel will have some very good things happening. This program allows up to one million dollars to be spent in the Rockaways and Broad Channel as the communities see fit. Broad Channel will receive $50,000 for an audio visual system for PS 47, which will include a DVD player, projector and screen, four wall hung speakers and two wireless microphones. This also includes the construction and any electrical upgrades that need to be done.”
“We will also have two of the basketball courts resurfaced at the 16th Road recreational park. The one in the rear will stay as is. The front basketball court will be resurfaced and transformed into a roller hockey rink. This project will cost $100,000 and will include all of the re-painting of the lines to specifications in both areas.”
One rainy night last month I got on the A train in Broad Channel and took an hour and a half ride to upper Manhattan to get off and see, well, “Broad Channel.”
The play, by James Bosley, was being performed by the UP Theater Company at the Cabrini Repertory Theater space in Washington Heights.
The author was a little apologetic when we were talking at the intermission and I mentioned I was fromBroad Channel. Maybe he felt the “Broad Channel” characters would be offensive to people who live here.
No need to worry really. I mean, in “All The Family,” Archie Bunker lived in Flushing, at 704 Hauser Street. But nobody said, “That’s what all those people in Flushing must be like.”
No, “Broad Channel” was a well written and extremely well-acted play that always surprised you along the way. Sometimes even without them speaking lines, the actors reaction shots were incredible. The play even made a painting, the center of the plot when a family discovers it may have great value, as much of a real character as any in the play.
It did have humor, and references to the unique smell of low tide, JFK airplane noise and street flooding.
But like a Twilight Zone episode set in Anytown, USA, this story was more about what comes out in people when something very unexpected drops into their lives. There was only one part in which a character went way over the top on one topic, where it left you wondering “Well, where did that come from?”
Broad Channel’s” run may have ended in late May, but keep a look out for it coming in on a new tide.
Got BC news, organization updates or event info? Send it to workingstories@aol.com.
Thanks for reading!

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