BROAD CHANNEL CIVIC ASSOCIATION
NEWSLETTER
CIVIC ASSOCIATION MEETING
***** VFW Hall – Shad Creek Road – 7:00 PM March 26, 2015*****
President’s Message
Spring is here and it will be good to see everyone out and about again after a cold winter where spotting your neighbor outside was not a common occurrence. As we all finally get a chance to spend some time outside, the Civic Association is encouraging all residents to try to help beautify our neighborhood by sweeping up the street in front of their, and maybe their neighbors, homes.
Speaking of spring, the fishing season will be upon us soon and for the many stripe bass fishermen out there, take note of the NYC DEC notice for the change in regulations pertaining to stripe bass rules -- "Marine andCoastal district (south of the George Washington Bridge): 1 fish, 28 inches or larger, during the Apr. 15 – Dec. 15season".
The Participatory Budget process is almost complete which means it is time to once again vote for the choices you would like to see funded. Councilman Ulrich has once again agreed to use this process to allow his constituents to choose where they would like to see discretionary funding spent. In the past, even though Broad Channel has a lower population then some of our surrounding neighborhood communities, we have had a very good turnout and have seen some great projects funded for our neighborhood. Voting will take place at the library and we will publish the date and time as soon as it is finalized, on both the Broad Channel Facebook page as well as our town website -- broadchannelcivic.org. In addition we will be taking voting submissions at the March Civic meeting as well.
The Councilman is also working to arrange for a cleanup of Crossbay Boulevard throughout the "strip" along the North-bound lanes as it has become quite a mess again after the long winter. Personally I would like to see some occasional enforcement regarding littering as it is mainly thoughtless drivers who discard this debris that ends up lining the sidewalk and curb.
Assemblyman Goldfeder has announced a bill he has introduced in Albany to create a NY State Flood Insurance Association. This would be an attempt to create an alternative to the Federal NFIP program at the State level. Should this be successful it would be a great development for coastal communities in New York State. FEMA has been a disaster in their management of the Federal Flood Insurance Program and that has led to the threat of ever higher premiums for those in the flood zone.
We will continue to attempt to be involved in the national conversation regarding the NFIP flood program and in particular with the discussions revolving around the 2017 re-authorization bill for the flood program which are beginning now, but it is great to see this type of initiative from our Assemblyman and we hope this concept is a success!!
The Civic Association has been working with Borough President Melinda Katz on the Hurricane Rebuilding and in specific the problems and issues arising in the Build it Back Program, the street raising project and on the issue of changing the zoning issues that are hampering those who are trying to elevate their homes. Many residents are running into problems with the Department of Buildings where they are not allowing a portion of the long existing home to be raised as it does not show on the City maps from 1960, an issue we were promised would not arise in the days after the hurricane. Now the solution seems to be a change to the wording in the zoning that will remove this insane mandate from the process. Borough President Melinda Katz has been an outstanding advocate for this community in addressing all of these issues
Quote of the Month -“A man is not old until...his regrets take the place of his dreams "--John Barrymore
Respectfully submitted,
Dan Mundy Jr.
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