Petition demanding ‘long promised’ expansion of
Briarwood library has more than 600 signatures
BY ANGELICA ACEVEDO
A petition demanding the “long
promised” expansion of the Briarwood
library has garnered more than 600 signatures,
according to Rosalie Quinones,
president of the Friends of Briarwood
Library Board.
“The Briarwood community wants to
know where the new library is,” Quinones
told QNS.
The petition, which exists only in
print, has a clear statement at the top of
the signature list: “I, a resident of Briarwood,
avail myself of the Briarwood
branch library’s facilities and activities
which enrich my life in inestimable
ways. Together with my friends and
neighbors, I am dismayed to learn that
the sorely needed and long promised expansion
of the library is in jeopardy of
being abandoned. We demand that the
plan to expand with a second story remain
in force, and the necessary funding
be expedited to realize the objective.”
Quinones and the Briarwood Community
Association (BCA) have been
asking that the city make the library’s
expansion a priority for several years
now. And in 2016, they believed they received
their answer.
In September of 2016, the BCA announced
that there was a proposal to
expand the library by 2020 with a $32
million project, according to the Queens
Chronicle. However, Queens Public Library
spokesperson Elisabeth de Bourbon
at the time said that although the
facility’s upgrades are in their 10-year
capital plan, the logistics were a “hypothetical.”
De Bourbon recently told QNS that
as of now, the Briarwood library, located
on 85-12 Main St., is slated to undergo a
$13.9 million renovation. She emphasized
that while the renovation is fully
funded by the city, an expansion is not.
Therefore, they would need more funds
for an expansion.
“Right now we are in a holding pattern
until there is consensus among
all stakeholders on how to proceed,” de
Bourbon said. “It is important to note
that QPL is committed to the renovation
and expansion.”
According to John Denegall, president
of the BCA, the library has served
the community for more than 30 years
now, but is in desperate need of an expansion
due to “rough leaks” and lack of
meeting rooms and other resources that
serve the surrounding schools.
“No one wants renovation, everybody
wants a new library because it’ll last 30
The Briarwood library is located on 85-12 Main St. Photo via Google Images
more years,” Denegall said. “Kew Gardens
got it, so why can’t we?”
Quinones, a retired public school educator,
asked Mayor Bill de Blasio about
the city’s plans for their library at a town
hall meeting in 2017.
“We were promised that in 2020 the
beginning of construction and information
of our new library is going to begin.
Now it is just the beginning stages. I want
to know what commitment is the city going
to give us? When are we going to have
a brand-new library built, much bigger,
to meet our needs?” Quinones said.
De Blasio told Quinones that while he
had been updated about the issue, he still
didn’t have a “nice, clean, easy answer.”
“We have been talking to the Queens
Library System, there are some challenges,
I think it is a priority, but there
are challenges trying to figure out what
it is going to take, the timeline, and one
thing or another,” de Blasio said during
the town hall. “What I can at least say to
you is that it is on our radar screen, we
are trying to come up with a real plan, a
real timeline, and we certainly are going
to work closely with Councilman Rory
Lancman on it.”
Councilman Lancman has been outspoken
about the library’s desperate
need of a full makeover. He told QNS that
it’s “bursting at the seams,” and that it is
now up to the mayor to deliver the funds
they need for an upgrade.
“The mayor acknowledged the need to
expand the Briarwood Library at a town
hall meeting at M.S. 217 two years ago,
and we expect him to deliver a plan to do
so,” Lancman said. “We have $14 million
set aside, and an expansion is estimated
at $24 million. Only the mayor has that
kind of money, and he needs to deliver as
promised for the people of Briarwood.”
A statement from the mayor’s office
to QNS acknowledged that there are already
funds set aside for the Briarwood
library’s renovation, and that they are
still in ongoing discussions with Councilman
Lancman and the Queens Public
Library.
“We are in constant contact with the
Queens Public Library about their needs
and will address capital funding issues
through the budget process,” the mayor’s
statement added.
But Quinones, who said she hasn’t
received much information about the
library’s expansion progress since 2017,
wants to make sure that the community
is as involved with the library’s expansion
plans as possible.
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