BROAD CHANNEL CIVIC ASSOCIATION
President’s Message
April 2014
This month's Civic meeting will be held on Thursday, April 24th at 7 pm at the VFW Hall. The meeting will feature a presentation by the NY Rising program detailing the final public review of the Broad Channel Design Plan. Our Committee has been working on this design within the scope of allowable HUD guidelines to produce what we believe is an excellent plan for making critical Broad Channel Infrastructure more resilient in the event of another large storm event. The committee members have been meeting since last July to create this plan and we invite and encourage all residents to come down and hear and see the final product before it is submitted to the State for review.
Following the NY Rising presentation we will have a presentation by Queens DOT Commissioner Dalilia Hall with the DDC team that has been working on the Street Raising Plan for West 11th, 12th, and 13th Roads. The contractor selected for this job will have a representative present to discuss details of the impending construction. It is highly recommended that the residents from the affected streets attend to better understand the time frames and impacts. This will probably be the last meeting with the DOT prior to the start of construction and it will be a great opportunity to relay any concerns or questions that residents may have.
On April 26th, which is Earth Day, the Civic Association will join with the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers and the American Littoral Society to conduct a shoreline and park cleanup at the American Ball Field, at West 20th Road, and invite any interested residents or children to show up at 12 noon. Garbage bags and work gloves will be available and hopefully we will make an impact on cleaning up these areas while participating in a national effort to take care of the planet!
The Civic Association testified at the recent City Council hearings that were held to discuss the seriously flawed Build it Back Program. We were able to testify to the outrageous manner in which this program has failed the very residents who the program was designed and funded to assist. In response to the huge volume of criticism, from every affected borough in the City, the Mayor has assigned a new director for the program. Amy Peterson has been brought on board and four days after the hearings she came to Broad Channel, at the request of Councilman Ulrich. The Councilman insisted that the new director meet with Civic reps to discuss the problems encountered to date and the needed changes to the program moving forward. She indicated that the Mayor got the message loud and clear and that he was making major changes to the program that included; additional funding to allow the program to be able to help additional priority categories, direct mayoral involvement in clearing any hurdles that arise, streamlining the application process, and a guarantee that the funding would start to flow immediately for both rebuilding as well as reimbursements. Mrs. Peterson was told that we appreciated her words and promises but that actions speak louder than words in the case of this program. She will be present at the May Civic meeting (May 22nd) at which time we will be able to evaluate and discuss the results of these changes and whether they have produced and noticeable results!
We want to thank Assemblyman Goldfeder for his tremendous support in the soon to be announced new artificial reef to be created off of Rockaway and the funding for wetlands at Sunset Cove that will both be funded by the Transco Williams Company as a result of offset mitigation requirements for their Rockaway Pipeline project. The Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers first submitted this request to both the Williams Company and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission three years ago upon hearing of this project. It is great to see two great environmental projects grow out of this pipeline project and it would not have happened without the support of the Assemblyman and Senator Schumer who insisted that the company "give back" to the environment thru these two projects as well as to the local community thru an additional grant program that will fund community based projects and groups.
Finally I want to thank both Senator Joe Addabbo and Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder for signing on and supporting a letter of opposition in the NY State Assembly to the proposed Port Ambrose LNG facility that is attempting to build a LNG terminal directly off of our coast that would ultimately see our natural gas reserves exported to a lucrative market overseas which would in turn create a sharp rise in domestic prices of Natural gas while destroying a critical marine habitat.
Quote of the Month--" “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's a day you've had everything to do and you've done it.” "--Margaret Thatcher
Respectfully submitted,
Dan Mundy Jr.
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