BROAD CHANNEL CIVIC ASSOCIATION MEETING -President's Message

BROAD CHANNEL CIVIC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
CIVIC ASSOCIATION MEETING
***** VFW Hall – Shad Creek Road – 7:00 PM *****
September 25, 2014

This issue of the Newsletter is sponsored by
Allstate Insurance and
Cross Bay Hardware

Summer seemed to fly by, but most people I speak with appreciated the great weather--no major heat waves and not too much rain. With the end of summer the Broad Channel Civic Association will start holding monthly meetings again and as usual they will be on the fourth Thursday of each month and take place at the VFW Hall on Shad Creek Road. Big thanks to the VFW for allowing us the use of their hall!! The September meeting will be on Thursday, Sept. 25th and it will feature a number of updates for residents on a variety of issues that have occurred over the summer.
 
The side street repaving is underway as this is written. We had been informed in June, and it was reported to the community, that the side streets would be paved in September with FEMA funds. Then on September 5th we attended a meeting where it was explained that a number of side streets would not be included with the paving that was to begin within the week. The Civic Association objected to this ridiculous decision as did Assemblyman Goldfeder and Councilman Ulrich's representative, Ciara. DOT explained that they would have preferred to include these streets but this paving project was funded by FEMA and it was the decision of FEMA that these streets be excluded. That FEMA would be so stupid, moronic, brainless, dim etc. is of no surprise at all. After two years of dealing with this agency it is clear they are without a doubt the most dysfunctional agency in the entire federal government. In spite of this we are happy to report that Queens DOT Commissioner Hall has agreed to fund the milling and the paving of those streets that were omitted. The Civic Association wants to thank Assemblyman Goldfeder for his tremendous support on this as well as Councilman Eric Ulrich, and State Senator Joe Addabbo. We could not have got this changed without their numerous phone calls and emails supporting our position. 

The September Civic meeting will also include a presentation and Q&A with Amy Peterson. Amy is the head of the Build It Back programand the Civic has been meeting with her at monthly task force meetings that Queens Boro President Melinda Katz has been holding. While we have experienced some progress at these meetings on issues that we have brought up, the overall pace and progress of the program to date has been abysmal. There have been recent changes within the program and we are hoping that will help. Amy will give an update and will take questions from those who are still facing issues with the application process.

The street raising project has started with bulkhead, and water main work. Road bed construction work was delayed as the issue of where to move the temporary telephone poles to was addressed. The current poles have to be moved out of the way to allow for an emergency access lane and to be established during the construction. The poles will come out and the electrical, cable and telephone wires will be relocated to temporary poles while the work is done. It seems that the plan for this has been finalized and we will discuss this at the meeting. 

It is fitting that as we recently observe the 13th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that the Civic Association is able to report that "The Propeller" is on display in front of the American Legion Hall and that it displays a plaque that bears the name of Firefighter and American Legion member Raymond York. For those of you who walk by and see The Propeller and are not familiar with its history it is worth understanding how it arrived at the American Legion Hall and its connection to Broad Channel. The Propeller was sitting in the bottom of the Bay, only visible at low tide, for many decades attached to a vessel that sunk long ago. A group of local kayakers , including Ray York, would paddle by it and would spend some time when they could trying to hack saw thru the heavy metal shaft to free it and raise it out of the Bay. They saw it as a navigational hazard but also as a part of the Bays history that should be on display. They had not finished this task when 9/11 struck and Ray York raced to the Towers on his day off to assist in the massive rescue effort. Ray perished in the collapse of the Towers. Months later the remaining members of the group finished the removal and raising of The Propeller in Rays memory with an intent to put it on display at the American Legion Hall. The National Parks Service demanded to have The Propeller and promised that they would put it on display. When 3 years passed and they made no effort to do so the Civic Association intervened and contacted Daily News Columnist Denis Hammil who wrote a scathing piece on this miscarriage of justice. A short time later The Propeller was released to the kayak group who worked to have it restored and put on display at the American Legion Hall where Ray York's father is a member and where Ray himself was a member of the Sons of the American Legion. It is a beautiful and fitting memory to a local hero who instead of staying home on his day off and watching the tragedy play out from the safety of his home rushed into harm's way to help innocent New Yorkers escape from the buildings. Hopefully we will all remember him and all those lost each time we pass the beautiful historic propeller on display. The list of those who assisted in this effort includes: American Legion, Bracci Iron Works, Broad Channel Volunteers, Bryans Auto, Busters Marine, Channel Oil, Steve Badamo, George Barr, Bill Ford, Phillip Dagostino, Dorothy McCluskey, John Hanning, Mike Killearny, Paul Luzzi, Dennis Macrae, Dan McIntyre, Butch Meyers, Robert Miller, Andrew Mussler, Jan Nebozenko, Steve Olberding, Geoff Rawling, Ugur Ulutas, Tome Van Rossen, Tom Williams and Ed Wilmarth.