Served From Koch To de Blasio
Community Board 9 District Manager Mary Ann Cary was honored for her three decades of service to the city at a special ceremony at City Hall last Tuesday, Sept. 23, and was awarded a City Council Proclamation for her years of dedication to the community.
Hired during the Koch administration, Carey told the Times Newsweekly on Tuesday that she is proud of her many accomplishments as the leader of Board 9.
“There are so many, and I worked with so many council members over the years,” she said
Among her greatest achievements were establishing a notification system to alert neighbors to emergencies; fighting to keep drinking water clean; saving the Forest Park Carousel; helping to raise awareness about AIDS; and supervising a resurfacing and rehabilitation project along Kew Gardens Road, she said.
The carousel was going to be sold and moved, but was saved by concerned residents and Board 9, Carey said.
The areas she worked to improve include parts of Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill Woodhaven and Ozone Park. The ceremony honoring Carey was attended by the entire Queens City Council delegation, it was noted.
She reflected on how the city, and the communities of Board 9 have changed over her three and half decades of service.
When Carey started as District Manager, Board 9 was mostly German, Spanish and Irish, “and now the board has changed considerably since I started,” she said. “We truly are a melting pot and a microcosm of New York City.”
Though she is bowing out as the calendar turns to October, and a new leader will be found shortly, Carey will remain active in the communities where she has worked and lived, she said.
“It’s been a long run, and there’s been many things I’ve done. I’m not going to go silently into the night. I’m certainly going to stay involved,” she said.
