By Mark Hallum
The plans for a new education center at Queens Botanical Garden to expose children to nature and culture were unveiled at a meeting of CB 7 last Friday. A Department of Sanitation official also explained measures the city agency has taken to prevent a repeat of last year’s winter clean-up debacle in Queens and predicted a successful season for snow removal.
The garden’s executive director, Susan Lacerte, gave a presentation laying out the plans for Education at the Garden.
The Botanical Gardens’ current education program is currently housed in a failing greenhouse on the grounds which was built for the 1939 World’s Fair. Photos showed crumpling concrete and a colorless classroom. Lacerte explained to Community Board 7 that the climate control systems are becoming unreliable.
Funding from City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) will help with the construction of a new facility in place of the greenhouse with better sunlight. The education center will have four classrooms, a teaching kitchen and a teaching greenhouse.
When visitors come to the garden, they often bring their children and hope to entertain them with aspects of nature they normally would not get living in the city, according to Lacerte. An outdoor landscape will allow families to sign up for plots for a certain period of time and children will get to learn how to garden.
The Kids Culture Garden will have activities to show how children play across the globe. The organization will use a part of the grounds where trailers are currently stored to make room for the new program.
Lacerte said the garden is looking to create spaces that feel open to the air so visitors can enjoy the outdoor feel of the park. Solar energy will potentially be utilized to power the new facility.
The administrative offices currently use geothermal power to help run the building as well as other methods of conserving energy and reducing waste, and would like to extend this to future building projects.
“What we did is we tried to put all the environmental technologies that we could here so that people could see,” Lacerte said. “Again, seeing is believing.”
Nick Circharo, community affairs liaison at Sanitation,, explained to the community board members how the city agency has prepared for the worst.
This year’s snow plan will include more equipment to focus on the borough of Queens. In Community Board 7 alone, three large spreaders, four haulsters, three plow trucks, two front end loaders, 58 plow blades and two skid steers are slated for use during the winter season.
The difference over last year is 72 more pieces of equipment, according to Circharo.
“All the changes that we made this year, I think we should have a more successful snow season,” Circharo said, admitting to the snow removal issues facing residents of Queens during Snowstorm Jonas on Jan. 24, 2016. He said that despite these challenges at the start of the historic storm, which hit on a Sunday, by Monday 95 percent of city streets were cleared.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
