Communities Stiffed:
Board Requests Fall By Wayside In Mayor’s Proposed 2011 Budget

By Queens Tribune Staff

On Wednesday Gov. David Paterson announced that his 10-day-old budget was wrong, and that an additional $750 million in savings will need to be factored in to what is already a budget that decimates funds to localities – especially to New York City.

When Mayor Mike Bloomberg presented his budget last week, he painted a grim picture for the coming year of teacher, police, fire, sanitation and healthcare layoffs, the closing of senior centers, reductions at libraries, the shuttering of firehouses and the eliminations of hundreds of school nurses.

Though the Mayor touted the City’s ability to weather the economic storm, he highlighted that sacrifices will have to made on a number of levels. Though his budget presentation focused heavily on education, jobs and healthcare, there was a smaller part of the budget that also has felt the pinch of the current economy – community projects.

Across the board, a vast majority of the projects have been denied, delayed or deferred to coming years. In many cases, it was suggested that smaller projects be lobbied to Council Members to fund through their discretionary funds.

Community Board 1
The construction of a parking lot over the Grand Central Parkway was the board’s top priority in the capital budget. The request was denied due to capital funding constraints and citywide priorities. In addition, the district was also denied its No. 4 priority, a curb reconstruction contract.

The district was pointed to the OMB Community Board Unit in regards to requests for an additional exit on Grand Central Parkway at 73rd Street, a repair to a sea wall at Queensbridge Park, their second and fifth priorities, respectively.

Community Board 2
Two of CB 2’s top four priorities have been accounted for in the estimates for FY 2011 by the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation – first priority, the redesigning and construction of sewers and catch basins to eliminate and prevent local flooding by the DEP and fourth priority, a reconstruction of Hunters Point streets were approved by the DOT. The board’s second priority, a reconstruction of Winfield industrial streets, was denied in light of capital budget constraints. In response to another high priority request, the reconstruction of the Hunters Point sewer system, the DEP cited further investigation was required.

Community Board 3
CB 3 fared well: the top three priority requests are a part of larger initiatives seeking funding, including construction of new school facilities, a reduction in odor and an improvement to the water flow in Flushing Bay and a new building and expansion for the Jackson Heights Regional Library, which has already received partial funding.

Community Board 4
Although the Queens Borough Public Library recommends funding the construction of a new reference library in the Corona Heights area, CB 4’s top capital budget priority, the agency has added that currently the availability of funds is “uncertain.” For the second highest-ranked request, the construction of a new facility to house the 110th Precinct, the NYPD said it is in the process of looking for an available site that would suit their needs for a stationhouse. District Manager Richard Italiano said the preliminary budget will be discussed in a public hearing March 2.

Community Board 5
One of Community Board 5’s top priorities, to rehabilitate and renovate the Glendale branch of the Queens Public Library, has already received partial funding, but the remainder of the funds needed have not been allocated in the budget, and where the money will come from is still uncertain. Funding for some recent projects, such as rehabilitation of facilities at Principe Park in Maspeth and a proposed widening of a small stretch of Metropolitan Avenue in Glendale between Woodhaven Boulevard and Aubrey Avenue were missing from the budget.

Community Board 6
The overriding concerns at Community Board 6 do not necessarily follow budgetary requests. Its top two priority projects – sewer upgrades to mitigate flooding – will both be funded by the capital budget.

“We’re going to be good as the final budget and the budget advances. Our main concern is charter revision,” said District Manager Frank Gulluscio.

If the Mayor’s reported plans go through, it may essentially nix the Board’s ability to do the community much good. Gulluscio said the City Council may be the only buffer from certain doom.

Community Board 7
Projects in need of City funding aren’t of top concern at Community Board 7, according to District Manager Marilyn Bitterman.

“It really doesn’t say anything if you really want to know the truth,” she said. “What it is, when we initially submit our budget in October, the end of October, we also present our projects to our City Council members to see what they can get funding for.”

The main concern, according to Bitterman, is keeping the lights on. The Community Board’s internal budget has been sliced to a pittance of $160,000.

“We won’t be able operate,” Bitterman said. “While we do fight for the other agencies, I think I’m going to fight for my job this time.”

Community Board 8
“Our main concern on the board has always been the sewer project,” said Marie Adam-Ovide, district manager. The request was to rehabilitate sewers, catch basins, and water mains within the district to stave flooding. The Department of Environmental Protection’s response was to turn down the funding request until further study can be done.

CB 8 had also held the district’s library budget as a high priority. It had requested that the Briarwood location be expanded to accommodate increased demand for service. Instead, Adam-Ovide lamented, the Kew Gardens Hills location will have no Sunday service, and funding for Briarwood location is “uncertain.”

Community Board 9
District Manager Mary Ann Carey was pessimistic that her community board’s top priorities would get funded. She said that her top priority projects, including updating of playgrounds in Forest Park which saw their funding cut in the 2011 budget, have been cut in past budgets as well.

“Most of my projects have been in the budget for years and haven’t moved,” said Carey. “This is not the first year the Mayor is threatening to cut the budget. These projects that have been languishing for seven or eight years”.

Community Board 10
The top priorities excluded from the budget include the construction of a new library in Hamilton Beach, which CB 10 says is big enough to warrant its own library branch and is too far and public transportation is too inconvenient for residents to access the Howard Beach branch; reconfiguring of the Cohancy Street exit off the westbound side of the Belt Parkway, which has long been considered a hazard for drivers; and reconstruction of curbs across the entire CB 10 area to combat a serious flooding problem.

Community Board 11
The board wanted curb repair and replacement. “We got the funding for Shore Road, which is falling into the sea,” said District Manager Susan Seinfeld, but other areas are deteriorating into a safety hazard. Another board priority was to install sewers and catch basins on 58th Avenue and other locations. The request was declined, citing need of further study.

Community Board 12
Priority No. 1, which may be held in budget limbo, is the installation of catch basins at five streets and intersections in the district. According to the mayor’s preliminary budget, “further study is needed before making a funding decision.”

“We have a serious flooding condition in our community,” said Yvonne Reddick, district manager.

Another concern of Reddick’s is the potential slash to the community board’s budget. Though she didn’t make concrete numbers available, she said the budget is being slashed by “thousands and thousands of dollars. “How can we function properly as a community board,” she asked.

Community Board 13
The selection site for a new 116th Precinct still won’t happen. According to the board’s explanation, the southern portion of the district needs the additional precinct and is too wide to be adequately serviced.

“The 105th is too large and has too many pressure points, which demand attention,” the board wrote in a statement. Response to the request was that a satellite office was set up in 2004 and that it “fulfills the City’s commitment to the community.”

Community Board 14
district manager Jonathan Gaska labeled the cuts to community boards as priority No. 1. He said the proposed budget for 2011 fiscal year is less than what the board’s budget was in 1995. According to Gaska, in 1995 the budget was about $165,000 and the preliminary budget allocated $160,000 for the coming year.

He said he anticipates massive layoffs if the proposed budget is accepted. “These cuts are going to be devastating,” he said. Gaska added, “The mayor basically said kill the community boards.”