18 The Queens Courier • APRIL 30, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com BAYSIDE NATIVE TO BECOME NORTHEAST QUEENS ADMINISTRATOR FOR PARKS DEPARTMENT BY ANGELA MATUA editorial@queenscourier.com @AngelaMatua Bayside native Matthew Symons is the new face of the parks he frequented as a child. Symons, who has worked in the New York City Parks Department for almost 20 years, officially started his job as the northeast Queens administrator on April 27. He will be in charge of the overall upkeep of the parks in the district, which include Alley Pond Park, Oakland Lake, Crocheron Park, Fort Totten, Little Bay, Joe Michaels Mile and some smaller properties. As an administrator, Symons will also be encouraging volunteer participation, working with local stakeholders in the parks and acting as a liaison with community boards and elected officials. Symons joined the Ranger Rick Nature Club as a child and while studying at SUNY Binghamton, he met a classmate who was an Urban Park Ranger and decided to pursue that as a career. He worked as an Urban Park Ranger for 14 years before becoming the deputy administrator for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the fourth largest public park in New York City. “This part of the world really means a lot to me as a park ranger, but also as a native Queens person,” Symons said. Symons’ experience as a deputy administrator for Flushing Meadows Corona Park has prepared him for his new role, he said, and he wants to make it a mission to attract more visitors to northeast Queens parks. “I think it’s always important…to develop a sense of stewardship with the public, so we want people to feel engaged and interested and to feel that the parks belong to them,” Symons said. “It’s not the city owns the parks and they just visit them, but the parks are something that belong to them.” Before officially starting his job, Symons had already been visiting parks to engage with people who are interested in parks and those who may not be so that he could gauge the projects and events he should be working on. “My goal is to kind of take the temperature of the community and see what the needs are and then based on that pursue what makes most sense for the public and the parks in general.” Though he anticipates that there will be challenges in his new role, so far, Symons likes what he sees. “In the past few weeks, I’ve been spending some time in the area and…I’m not saying that there won’t be challenges, but we’ve had a volunteer event every weekend,” Symons said. “Basically, all of our properties are getting a lot of attention, which is great.” Symons said the Parks Department faces a unique challenge in northeast Queens because unlike other parts of the city, Queens residents have access to outdoor spaces closer to home, such as their own backyards. He hopes to use special events and programs like Urban Park Rangers to interest this segment of the Queens community. “We will try anything to get people to visit their parks and love their parks,” Symons said. Photo courtesy of Matthew Symons Matthew Symons, the new Northeast Queens Administrator for the Parks Department, will be in charge of maintaining parks in the area. PARTICIPATORY BUDGET PROJECTS ANNOUNCED IN DISTRICTS 19 AND 23 BY ALINA SURIEL asuriel@queenscourier.com @alinangelica Councilmen in northeast Queens announced the winning projects to be funded with their participatory budgeting allowances, a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Councilman Paul Vallone announced the four winning projects from District 19 in a press conference in his Bell Boulevard office on April 27, with a crowd of community members waiting on his every word to see if their favored project would be chosen. This year 2,300 votes were cast the district. The project that received the most votes in District 19 was to build a state-of-the-art music studio for Bayside High School for $400,000. The proposal received 1,430 votes, and will serve 350 students in the school’s “Career and Technical Education” program for music production and performance. “Participatory budgeting was a great experience for our students and we look forward to the positive effect the new music studio will provide to our academic programming,” said John Hirata, Bayside High School assistant principal of operations. An auditorium upgrade for P.S. 169 received the most votes after the Bayside High School music studio with a total of 1,041, and will also cost $400,000. The elementary school will receive replacements in lighting, curtains, seating and a sound system for the auditorium that students share with middle school Bell Academy. “We are so thrilled to have this auditorium upgrade because both our schools really need it,” said Orit Foresta, a parent coordinator at P.S. 169. “We do a lot of arts, a lot of shows in our schools.” The other two projects to be funded in District 19 are $90,000 in technology upgrades for P.S. 159 and the installation of three NYPD security cameras throughout the district for $105,000. Councilman Mark Weprin announced the winning participatory budget proposals for District 23 on Friday, April 24. Weprin was one of the first eight City Council members to offer participatory budgets to constituents in 2012, the initiative’s first year. Twenty-four districts have since adopted the process. “It is my hope that next year, more of my colleagues embrace participatory budgeting,” Councilman Weprin said. “It’s a great way to get community residents involved — especially those who may not be actively involved in the political process.” A District 23 proposal with 1,146 votes received the most support, and will see $455,000 in technology upgrades coming to nine local schools. All of the schools serve children at elementary grade levels except for one, the Queens High School of Teaching. A entry for fitness equipment at Alley Pond Park was in second place for most votes in District 23, with a total of 1,065 voting in favor of the $450,000 project. The last proposal to be funded is a plan to use $300,000 for renovations at the physical education facilities of Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside and Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village. THE COURIER/Photo by Alina Suriel Councilman Paul Vallone poses with children who attend one of the schools benefiting from participatory budget funding.
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