4 The Courier sun • APRIL 30, 2015 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com PARTICIPATORY BUDGET PROPOSALS ANNOUNCED FOR DISTRICT 32 BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected] @AngelaMatua Councilman Eric Ulrich announced on April 27 the results of Participatory Budgeting in District 32 for the areas of Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park. The process, which allows community members to decide how a portion of the public budget is spent, began in November with local brainstorming EVERGREEN PARK RENOVATIONS CELEBRATED AT GLENDALE GROUNDBREAKING BY KELLY MARIE MANCUSO [email protected]/@TimesNewsweekly City officials and civic leaders celebrated the start of Evergreen Park’s reconstruction during a ceremony on April 24 at the Glendale green space. Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley joined Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and others to ceremonially break ground on renovations to the playground on the national observance of Arbor Day. “It’s really appropriate, because it’s Arbor Day, that we have all of this green coming into this park,” Lewandowski said. Construction on the park began in early April and is expected to take about one year to complete. The first phase of the park’s reconstruction will include replacing the underused bocce and shuffleboard courts with a garden-inspired playground, spray showers, new shrubs and plantings. According to Lewandowski, the new playground, themed with the title “Play in the Garden,” will feature new spray showers with “large green misting leaves and directional jets and bubblers, in a field of leaves and vines.” “It’s going to promote innovative play for toddlers and young children,” Lewandowski said. “This will be a really creative spot where kids can play. The days of the old concrete spray shower are gone. This will be much more interactive for children.” Crowley allocated $1 million in funding for this first phase of the park’s reconstruction. The councilwoman considers Evergreen Park a “special place” as it’s where she used to play softball while growing up. “This project is a long time coming,” Crowley said. Community Board 5 was well represented at the affair in the form of Chairperson Vincent Arcuri, District Manager Gary Giordano, Parks Committee Chair Steven Fiedler, Paul Kerzner and Tom Dowd. Also on hand were Mike Liendo and David Sands, the respective president and vice president of the Liberty Park Home Owners Association, and Barry Grodenchik, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz’s director of community boards. Community members, including Sands and Liendo, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and other civic leaders broke ground on the reconstruction of Glendale’s Evergreen Park on April 24. first approached Crowley back in 2009, shortly after she was elected, regarding refurbishment of the park. According to Fiedler, a design committee rejected the plan on two occasions before finally granting approval to proceed. “I’m glad to see this move forward,” he said. “It’s a great design.” Crowley also announced that an additional $2.4 million in funding for the second phase of improvements was secured in conjunction with Katz and the mayor’s office. These improvements may include refurbishment of the asphalt field, basketball courts and comfort stations. TIMES NEWSWEEKLY/Photo by Kelly Marie Mancuso “I want to make sure everybody stays engaged as we come together to plan the next phase of this project,” Crowley said. Principal Ann Marie Scalfano and first-graders from P.S. 68 also attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The children carried handmade signs and banners thanking Crowley for her funding and support of Evergreen Park. “It’s exciting, because this $1 million allocation will go a long way in making Evergreen Park a better park for the community,” Crowley said. “The park is uniquely named ‘Evergreen’ and it’s important to keep it young and fresh for the young people of the community.” sessions. Residents in these neighborhoods then met with city agency representatives to review the proposals. The ballot included eight capital proposals submitted by local residents. A total of 692 constituents who cast ballots whittled down the proposals to five. “Participatory budgeting empowers local communities and strengthens relationships between elected officials and the people they serve,” Ulrich said. “I am deeply grateful to everyone that contributed and I look forward to bringing PB back next year to allow my constituents a real say in how their tax dollars are being spent.” The winning proposal with the most votes included technology upgrades at P.S. 90, P.S. 97, P.S. 66 and P.S. 306. The project received 465 votes with a total of $300,000 being allocated to the four schools. Residents cast 326 votes to bring $200,000 worth of security upgrades to Ozone Park Library and renovations to Richmond Hill Library. Rebecca Babirye-Alibatya, the manager at Richmond Hill Library, was excited to learn that the community voted to allow for much-needed renovations to the 100-year-old building, she said. “We need major renovations. We are one of the only libraries without self-checkin and checkout machines,” Babirye-Alibatya said. “Our basement is in need of renovations. The electrical wiring is as old as the building and there are so many things we can use the money for.” Babirye-Alibatya said the library would also look to buy new computers and tablets and try to expand the basement to add more rooms to host activities for children and the community. Residents also voted for emergency call boxes to be installed throughout Forest Park to improve safety with 312 votes from the community. The installation will cost $140,000. Another school to receive funding in the district is P.S. 64 in Ozone Park, which received 237 votes for a $300,000 auditorium upgrade. The 9/11 Memorial in Forest Park was the last proposal to be funded and received 239 votes and $250,000 for a total refurbishing. Photo via Twitter, @eric_ulrich City Councilman Eric Ulrich (at podium) released this week the results of participatory budgeting voting in his district.
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