Queens Zoo And Weekend Meals Stay In Service

Children and parents can still marvel at mountain lions, baboons and bears at the Queens Zoo, thanks to eleventh-hour negotiations between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council members on June 25th, a day before a vote on the citys budget.
The agreed-upon budget restores $115 million to city services that were still on the chopping block less than a week before the new fiscal year started on July 1. In a 45-3 vote, the Council officially approved the $44.5 billion budget on June 27.
The $115-million restoration, the result of a surplus of funds from the recent property-tax, sales-tax and income-tax hikes, eliminates most of the cuts that Bloomberg had proposed. The restorations keep the Queens Zoo open, feed seniors on the weekend, and make attending a CUNY school more affordable with the Peter Vallone Scholarship. However, five firehouses, including Engine Company 261 of Long Island City, remain shuttered, and more than 3,000 school aides still lost their jobs.
"Its the best we can do in these trying times," said Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., who was pleased that many Queens services were resuscitated and the scholarship named in honor of his father would continue to help city students. Vallone said he was determined to roll back taxes as soon as possible and remarked that he was the only councilman to get a face-to-face pledge from Bloomberg and Council Speaker Gifford Miller to get this done.
"We had to make some tough decisions," said David Weprin and added the Council and the Mayor were up against a fiscal crisis worse than 1975. Weprin was also glad to see the Queens Zoo stay open.
"We will keep feeding the animals everyday, and it will be open to the public everyday," Robin Dalton, director of the Queens Zoo, said happily after hearing the news.
The finalized budget returns $4.8 million to the Parks Department, who will split the money between the Brooklyn Zoo and Queens Zoo. However, the funding still falls a million short of what is needed to keep the zoos open.
To fill the money gap, the commissioner of the Parks Department decided to double the admission price for adults and children, at the zoo. An adult ticket will now cost $5, and the price of a child will be $1. Tickets prices for seniors will remain at $1.25. The Wildlife Conservation Society, the non-profit organization that runs the city zoos, will also try to generate funds. The zoo is also considering an increased marketing campaign.
"I think promotion is a great idea," said Councilman Joe Addabbo about marketing the zoo. "Every time you step onto a bus or subway car, there should be an ad for the Queens Zoo."
Addabbo, who chairs the Councils Parks Committee, said he was very pleased with the funds parks received. He said the money would go toward renovations.
"The zoo and the library make Queens and the city what they are," said Vallone, who added that he and his daughters have always enjoyed these Queens treasures.
Dalton says now the plan is to get the word out to the public that it will remain open. The animal lover said that people have been calling the past few weeks asking if the zoo were going to close, but he didnt have an answer for them. "Now we are trying to encourage people to come," he said.
Councilman Weprin said the Queens animal sanctuary held an important place in the city. He noted how he was recently at the zoo and saw people from all the boroughs there. A class from Flatbush Brooklyn who were learning about American History and animals place in it, Weprin said, came to the zoo that day to look at the bison exhibit.
With the zoo off the chopping block, Dalton says he and his staff will move forward with plans to create a new thick-billed parrot exhibit. According to Dalton, this is the only parrot indigenous to the United States. The exhibit is part of an overall plan to bring birds back to sanctuaries in the United States.
The citys last-minute restorations also included funding to the Department for the Aging to pay for weekend meals for seniors. The department contracts with City Meals, a non-profit organization, that coordinates the distribution of meals to senior centers throughout the boroughs. The service allows 43 Queens senior centers to provide meals at their weekday programs. Before the restoration, Bloomberg had threatened to cut the seniors weekend meal which is a frozen package they pick up on Friday and take home with them to eat.
"These seniors are very dependent on this meal," said Margaret Fingleton-Belton, director of Allen Community Senior Center, in Jamaica. Her center provides a weekend meal each week to 54 seniors from Jamaica and Rockaway. Some meals are delivered to shut-in seniors but most are picked up at the center.
"They take one lunch and make three meals out of it," she added. The centers director said seniors get a nutritious meal that consists of bread, a meat, a vegetable, a starch and juice. Many seniors make stretch the meal out to last the weekend.
"A lot of people depend on it," said Robert Kornblum, director of the HANAC Ravenswood Senior Center, in Long Island City. He noted that low-fixed-income seniors at his center rely on the meals. Without the meals, he says, many seniors will eat cheap fast food to save money.
While the council members were happy with the restorations, their attention was already focused on next years budget and its expected $1.8 billion deficit. However, most were confident that the city could tackle it.
"To be somewhat optimistic, we have dealt with a six billion and three billion deficit," said Councilman Addabbo. "I am certain we can deal with 1.8 million dollars."."