CB14 June Meeting Recap

By Katie McFadden

The last Community Board 14 meeting before the summer hiatus, on Tuesday, June 10 at the Knights of Columbus, was packed with updates on flooding, plans for a new school building for P.S. 106, the redesign for Arverne Playground and more.

Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Po­wers was first to present some updates. She shared that City Council is still in budget negotiations and she’s pushing to make sure essential services, especially in education, don’t get cut. She’s also continuing to fight for a trauma center in Rockaway. The state is pushing for a Level 3 facility, but as this would require building an entire new hospital that would compete with St. John’s, Brooks-Powers is still fighting for a Level 1 or Level 2 standalone trauma center. Mayor Adams has committed a piece of city-owned land for the hospital but doesn’t want to provide $300,000 in funding that is needed to transfer the property out of NYCHA ownership, so they’re continuing to fight for the money for the application.

Brooks-Powers also announced that she and other elected officials are hosting a Father’s Fest this Sunday, June 15 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Beach 17th Street near the boardwalk, where they’ll have food, games, health screenings, wine and cheese, vendors, a tie-dying contest and more. Plus, there will be a movie screening of “Mufasa on Saturday, June 21 at Bayswater Park at sundown. There will also be a street co-naming ceremony for Pat Simon on Beach 54th Street at 12:30 p.m. on June 21, near the Ocean Bay Development.

Next, the 100th, 101st and Transit District 23 police precincts provided updates. The 100th reported that their summer beach detail has been deployed. The 101st has 17 new rookie police in addition to their summer detail. Transit District 23 is back on the shuttle and A train locally since service returned but warned that there may be another shutdown of these trains in the fall.

On a transit related note, CB14 Chair Dolores Orr said the QM15 express service that ends in Howard Beach and runs daily, which was used during the shutdown, has continued service as the MTA determines if it should remain permanently. Orr urged people to use it to keep the convenient service.

Next were updates from representatives of elected officials. Jose of Rep. Meeks’ office said they’re working with immigrants on their cases. He urged them to contact Meeks’ office if they’re having difficulties. He also urged people to apply for passports soon as services are becoming busy with summer travel and look into the Smart Traveler enrollment program, which provides safety alerts from embassies in their destinations. For info, call 718-725-6000. A rep from Senator Sanders’ office spoke about Father Fest and an event they’re holding on Tuesday, June 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Queens Community Justice Center (1027 Beach 20th Street) for seniors, with lessons on how to use cellphone functions, email, the internet and more.

Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato is still up in Albany working to get bills passed, including recent legislation to secure 20-year pensions for correction and sanitation workers.

Stacey of Councilwoman Ariola’s office said she met with the new NYPD Chief of Patrol McIntosh for Queens South. She congratulated Iris Rodriguez-Rosa on her promotion to NYC Parks Commissioner. She then spoke of the successful Beach 116th Summer Kickoff and said the beach there is open for sand play, with lifeguards coming in the future. Ariola’s working on legislation to ban ATVs in New York City. There was also talk of the June 14 fireworks event being postponed. As we go to press, that is confirmed. The fireworks will now be on Saturday, June 21 at 9 p.m. on Beach 116th Street.

Orr then gave her report, starting with the sad news of the unexpected passing of member John Cori’s son, Chris, last week. As a member of the JFK Redevelopment committee, Orr shared that there’s a big need for air traffic controllers, but they only start at $45-50K, have to work six days a week and many leave the job due to the stress. Orr then warned about some charter revisions on the ballot this year. As of right now, community boards have 60 days to get notice of a development proposal, have a meeting, and vote on a motion for it as part of ULURP, but the revision would reduce this to 30 days, essentially giving community boards little to no time to complete that process. They’re also thinking of eliminating local councilmembers’ say on a proposal during the ULURP process. She announced that District Manager Felicia Johnson receive the Dr. Williams Award for Community Service from the St. John’s iCare Foundation.

That led into Johnson’s report. Johnson shared that she was not happy with the NYC Office of Emergency Management’s hurricane evacuation plan which amounted to a QR code that sends people to a website that tells them they live in Flood Zone 1. She hopes they’ll make improvements. She said the DEP received $25 million to repair lining intercepted assets in the sewer system, but they don’t know when it will be done. NYC Parks got approval to do consulting and design for the reconstruction of the parking lot at Broad Channel American Park. It was approved for an amended amount of $267,000. Bayswater Park was also approved for $3.7 million to reconstruct the bathrooms there. DOT approved open streets for Seagirt Blvd. between Beach 3rd and Beach 6th, as requested by the Rockaway Nassau Safety Patrol, so there will be limited access to cars in the area. HPD received a new permit for a 57-unit condo building at 155 Beach 30th Street with 29 enclosed parking spots. They can build as of right, so it’s moving forward.

Several people signed up for public speaking. A man named Michael brought up the issue of speeding in front of Cathedral Church of God at 1252 Bronswick Ave. and asked that a speed bump be added. JK Canepa of Sane Energy said the threat of the Williams pipeline is back again as they’re planning to resubmit an application for a pipeline, so she wanted to bring awareness to it as Sane Energy gears up to fight back against it. For information, contact JK at jk@saneenergy.org. Kim Fraczek of Sane Energy said National Grid is gearing up to increase monthly bills and if the pipeline is approved, bills could go up even higher to cover the costs.

A rep from Catholic Charities Southwest Queens Senior Services said they’re offering free services for seniors 60+ who are homebound, including home meals, case management, transportation and more. For info, call 718-217-0126. Dan Keyes of Green Meadows Farm, which operates in Floyd Bennett Field, was told they need to close since they operate under Aviator’s expired lease. He requested CB14 send a letter of support to the National Park Service asking for them to remain open, since they serve 50,000 people from across the city, including many schools.

Florence Ferguson spoke about the new mural at Beach 59th Playground. There is also now a little library in the playground. They will be hosting a Juneteenth celebration on Thursday, June 19 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the playground.

Greg Costigliola spoke about his HB Hurricanes basketball skills development program, which is now serving Rockaway. He asked that people reach out to them on social media if interested. Dolores and Marcia, of Friends of Arverne Park, urged that an eight-foot fence, as they have currently, be included in the plans for the new playground. Eugene Falik spoke about the dangers of schools leaving smokestop doors closed in school buildings.

Alfonso Lopez, Queens Borough Commissioner for the Department of Environmental Protection, was back in Rockaway to talk about flooding mitigation as we begin hurricane season. He spoke about stormwater, coastal flooding and groundwater. He urged people to report problems to 311 and contact him directly at: queensdep@dep.nyc.gov to follow up.

James Mongeluzo, of the Queens Office for Comptroller Brad Lander, spoke about the ways in which their office can help the public. Their office works closely with all agencies, so he said if someone runs into a problem or a councilmember hits a dead end, they can connect them with agencies that might be hard to reach. As the office handles a lot of audits, he said if people have ideas of city-related things that should be audited and financially investigated, to reach out to the office. If someone faces city damage to their person or property, they can’t help people sue the city, but they can tell people what information they need, including forms, to do so. If people want to know the status of budget issues like how much money was allocated for a certain project or when something is supposed to be done, reach out to their office. Mongeluzo can be reached directly by call or text at 646-689-6509.

Next was a presentation from the NYC School Construction Authority (SCA) as they start to develop a plan for a brand-new school building for P.S. 106 on Beach 35th Street, as their classes are overloaded and staff is working in trailers on the property. So, there is a plan to build a new building where the city’s covid testing site was between Beach 39th and Beach 40th Street. The current school has 128 seats but serves 159 students. The new building will have 547 pre-k through fifth grade seats, 96 of which will be for District 75 students with special needs. The site itself is more than 44K square feet. The building will be fully accessible and air conditioned. The design phase can take 12 months, then will go out for a three to four month bid process, and construction would take between 24 and 36 months based on the design, with a goal of opening the school by September 2029. SCA will keep CB14 in the loop as they move forward.

Finally, NYC Parks presented their plan to redesign Arverne Playground at 55-0 Arverne Blvd. Parks has a budget of $7.7 million to redesign the playground that currently has four handball courts and three basketball courts. Reconstructing the basketball courts falls under a different contract. After holding community input meetings where neighbors requested climbing features, sensory elements, seaside vibrant colors, trees, more seating options and a new restroom, Parks worked on a design and provided an overview on Tuesday. A bathroom will come later as it is not funded yet.

The new playground will have seating near the basketball courts, tables and benches with games, a shaded tree area, a play area for 2-5 year olds with bucket swings, a waterplay feature, a large play area for kids ages 5-12 with four strap swings and one universal swing, climbing features, a see-saw, one remaining handball court that could be used for pickleball if people bring their own nets, an adult fitness area, Ping-Pong tables, sensory features, a drinking fountain and bottle fillers, increased security lighting and stormwater management systems. Parks has proposed lowering the fence to a four-foot fence with a lockable gate, but this was an issue of contention for neighbors who said the fence should stay at eight-feet due to safety concerns.

At the end, CB14 made a motion to support the design, but require an eight-foot fence instead. Most voted to support it, so the motion carried.