Councilwoman Brooks-Powers Gives a Budget Brief
By Katie Larkin
On Thursday, July 25, District 31 hosted its fourth Community Budget Briefing at the YMCA located at 207 Beach 73rd St. Far Rockaway’s Councilwoman Selvena N. Brooks-Powers, with the aim of providing clarity and transparency to her constituents, went over what she was able to acquire for fiscal year 2025 in the city budget. Many of the funded projects addressed critical needs of the Rockaway community including funding towards a trauma center in Rockaway.
At least 85% of the city budget every year is earmarked for use before it is even discussed, leaving members of the council very little to work with. Despite this obstacle, Councilwoman Brooks-Powers was able to get a record $59 million towards improvements in District 31. “It is my hope that the budget will reflect some of the conversations we’ve been having,” stated Councilwoman Brooks-Powers.
A second installment of $25 million, along with $80,000 in discretionary funding, went towards the all-too necessary trauma center in Far Rockaway. According to Brooks-Powers, this latest investment will be given to an architect who will draw up the plans and provide details on what amount of the total $50 million is needed to complete the project. “We’ve got a full commitment from the mayor to see this through,” Brooks-Powers said. “It went from saying they were in support to showing they were in support. The mayor is going with us to the Governor to start giving reports and because of that, we are making progress.”
Another $7.5 million of the current budget went towards plans for a community recreation center in Brookville Park. $5 million and $4.45 million, respectively, went towards the reconstruction of the Sunrise playground in Rosedale and upgrades for the Springfield Gardens Gotham Health Center, which is hosted by NYC Health and Hospitals. Councilwoman Brooks-Powers was excited to announce that she acquired $350,000 to hire a veteran services liaison to travel between her Laurelton and Far Rockaway offices. This liaison, she noted, will allow veterans in the community to access needed resources without having to travel to the VA in Manhattan and elsewhere.
Additionally, the councilwoman was able to fund 27 out of the 39 total schools located throughout District 31. Most of the funds went towards after school programs and overall improvements in academic fields like STEM and literacy. A total of $6.6 million of the current budget went towards tech and gym upgrades for schools districtwide.
The evening ended with a round of questions and answers from present constituents, many of them who started out by congratulating the councilwoman’s hard work in this year’s budget. Some concerned parties brought up the issue of road conditions throughout Rockaway, citing the lack of DOT attention. Councilwoman Brooks-Powers assured them that she was completely on their side and encouraged concerned parties to send photos and/or give locations of the problematic areas for her office to look into. Other constituents were taken aback by the price tag of all the projects listed but were reassured that the prices are well within expected ranges. Overall, constituents agreed it was a successful budget season for Councilwoman Brooks-Powers.
For further budget inquiries, you can reach out to Budget Director Julian Martin at jmartin@council.nyc.gov.
