The November Meeting of the City Island Civic Association will take place on Tuesday, November 29th, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. at 190 Fordham Street. We welcome your input and attendance and we need your help.
As always, we will have updates from our officers, committee reports on Crime, Development, Quality of Life and Traffic, and an open public forum for residents to address their grievances.
Nominations have been presented for the positions of First Vice President, Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer. As there were no challenges to these nominations, we will vote on these nominations at the November meeting.
We are starting a “City Island Eyesores” public awareness campaign for properties that sit abandoned in our community. The purpose is to encourage these property owners to tend to these properties and keep them up to code or to sell them to someone who will. This month’s location is 135 City Island Avenue, where the owner rarely cleans the property, there is graffiti on the windows and there have been issues where the back of the property has been left open for entry. We are encouraging all members to go by this property, and if you see anything out of the ordinary to call your complaint into 311. Please get a reference number for your complaint and email the complaint to us at city.island.civic.com. We will follow up on your behalf. A letter is being drafted to the owner of this property and will be read at the next Civic meeting.
We are sad to report that Captain Ed Sadler passed away on Friday, November 18, 2011 at 95 years old. He passed away in the same house where he was born on Schofield Street. Captain Sadler was one of the most vocal voices against the closure of Ladder 53. We mourn this great loss to our community and we’re sure he’s in a better place.
This will be the last meeting of 2011, as we do not meet in December. Happy Holidays and Have a great new year.
City Island Civic Association meeting, October 25, 2011
The meeting was brought to order at 7:35 p.m. by Barbara Dolensek, second vice president. The reading of the minutes of the September meeting was waived and the minutes were accepted as distributed. The treasurer reported that there was $14,974.62 in the regular account and $10,064.17 in the SONE account.
Crime: The Community Council of the 45th Precinct had its October meeting on City Island at the American Legion, and Captain Green gave an excellent summary of police issues affecting City Island. The traffic agents managed to improve the traffic situation during the summer, freeing up the officers to monitor other activities. There were 29 summonses for DWI during issued from June to October, and other summonses issued for excessive noise, etc.; two motorcycles were confiscated. There will be a report in the November issue of The Island Current.
Development: The empty store at 532 City Island Avenue is being renovated for a daytime program (9am to 3pm) for developmentally disabled persons, to be operated by the state’s Department of Health (DOH). The individuals will be brought in by vans and the client to staff ratio will be 3 to 1. A representative of the DOH agreed to address a future Civic meeting to discuss the project. There will be 25 people accommodated, and this should include those from City Island. They will not need any parking at the facility.
Dr. Domenico Mignone presented his plans for the senior housing to the Community Board’s housing and zoning committee; the project has changed yet again to include assisted living facilities (the state grants require that). The Community Board recommended that he apply to City Planning for a zoning change, but Dr. Mignone prefers to go directly to the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) for a variance. The Board said he would have to apply to the Buildings Department first before going to BSA. Although a smaller assisted living facility would not be as objectionable as a four-story market rate apartment house, the entrance on Schofield Street will also make it difficult for the fire trucks to negotiate turns, and insufficient parking is also a legitimate concern. The current site is now zoning M-1, on which a tow truck facility is allowed.
Residents of Reynolds Street are circulating a petition asking for “no parking here to corner” signs to be returned because of near accidents. The meeting was in general agreement to support the petition.
Gunshots were reported on Cross Street on a recent Friday night, and there was also an attempted break-in, but the perpetrator was scared off by a dog. It is very important to report incidents like this in order to get it on the record. Be sure to get an incident number when you call.
Mary Jean Dux sent the Civic a letter asking members to ask the Post Office k to keep Jim and Sonya.