The February meeting of the City Island Civic Association will take place on Tuesday, February 28, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at 190 Fordham Street. We welcome your input and attendance and we need your help.
Updates from officers, committee reports on Crime, Development, Quality of Life and Traffic, and an open public forum for residents to air and address their grievances.
An update will be given on the upcoming City fiscal year budget battle. We believe that Ladder 53 will again be on the chopping block.
We will also concentrate on setting goals for the upcoming 2012 year.
This will be the second meeting of 2012, start the year off right and take an interest in your community. Annual dues are $20 per household.
Minutes of City Island Civic Association meeting, January 24, 2012
The meeting was brought to order at 7:40 p.m. by FredRamftl, vice president, as Bill Stanton was away. The reading of the minutes was waived and they were accepted as distributed. The treasurer reported that there was $14,264.31 in the regular Civic account and $10,084.17 in the SONE account. He reminded everyone present that dues were now due for 2012. It was moved and moved unanimously to donate $250 of Civic funds to Temple Beth-El and to support thePS 175 PTA with a full-age ad ($100) for the card party journal.
Crime Report: There was some discussion of the break-in at Temple Beth-El and of Senator Klein’s new legislation making attacks on religious institutions a higher form of felony. Barbara Dolensek read the Police Blotter from the new Island Current for the months of December and January. There were many instances of vandalism. She reminded Islanders: “If you see something, say something!” and urged them to call 911 or 311 if a crime was witnessed. John Doyle informed the meeting that the contract for the security cameras had finally be issued and that they would be installed within the next few months.
Development: Because there is nothing to protest at the moment, we will wait Dr. Mignone to submit proposals to the Department of Buildings and the Community Board. Letters were written to some of his supporters advising them that City Island residents for the most part objected to various aspects of the project because we feel that they are unaware of our position. Barbara and Bill met with Adolfo Carrion of HUD in December, and they learned valuable information about community housing issues; very few instances of Section 8 subsidized housing werefound to be in place on City Island. Permits are about to be issued by the Army Corps of Engineers for waterfront work at the Marine Street development; concerns were raised again about public access to the waterfront at that development. Some demolition is taking place at the Fordham Place but no plans have been filed for construction. Barbara was assured by one of the developers that they intended to restrict the number of units to that agreed upon when the zoning was changed.
The owner of the Sunoco station presented his plans to build a 24 x 24-foot canopy over the gas tanks so that customers would be able to stay dry when filing their gas tanks. It was moved and voted unanimously to support this project.
Quality of Life: John Doyle reiterated that the Civic should concentrate on unsightly properties on City Island by making complaints. The target for this month is 135 City Island Avenue, and there are several more to come after that. Residents are urged to call 311 and lodge complaints about unsightly and unsafe conditions. He also confirmed that the Library Bar seems to be closed for good, as no new liquor license applications have been filed. He thanked the Community Board for its support in this.
It was announced that DOT will be changing the traffic pattern at the Amtrak Bridge on Feb. 3. That project seems endless. Barbara noted that this four-year project does not bode well for the new City Island Bridge project, which is moving ahead in spite of community protest and lack of response from the city. (Update: The current schedule is for bids to be released in the second quarter of 2012; contracts registered in the fourth quarter of 2012; construction to start during the first quarter of 2013 and to be completed in 2016.)
The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m.
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