Community Board 5 (CB 5) wants to make the neighborhoods of Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood a little greener, as many environmental projects made the top 10 capital budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2019.
Each year, CB 5 votes on the most important capital budget projects that will impact the communities in the following fiscal year. Projects on the survey range from tree plantings, to street and sewer reconstructions, to parks projects and many other issues the board and residents want addressed.
For the FY19 capital budget projects, the executive committee of CB 5 ranked 36 community projects they deem most important. The top 10 projects are as follows:
- To redesign and reconstruct the sewer system in portions of the Community Board area having the worst flooding problems — with a focus on the area of Cooper Avenue at 76th Street along 77th Avenue in Glendale, (this project was ranked No. 1 in CB 5’s FY18 budget);
- The reconstruction of deteriorated catch basins and provide new catch basins in the CB 5 area, which will replace deteriorated brick catch basins with precast concrete basins, (No. 2 in FY18);
- To provide new street tree plantings and provide funding for stump removals, planting of replacement trees and street tree removals, (No. 3 in FY18);
- Make capital improvements to improve pedestrian and vehicle safety on Grand Avenue at 69th Street, Grand Avenue/LIE Eastbound Service Road, and at the 69th Street/LIE Service Road intersections, (No. 4 in FY18);
- To evaluate the structural condition on the elevated portions of the M train line in the CB 5 area, perform repairs, abate lead on other contaminants, and paint the structure, (No. 5 in FY18);
- To move along with the second phase of the rehabilitation of the Ridgewood Reservoir and the surrounding area, including portions of Highland Park — focusing on the rehabilitation of the old pump house, or to construct a new building at the reservoir to accommodate bathrooms and to serve as an Environmental Center, (No. 6 in FY18);
- To rehabilitate the Glendale Library branch by installing an elevator or other means of handicap access, new windows, new boiler and air conditioner, new doors and other upgrades, (No. 8 in FY18);
- To provide replacement of the synthetic turf field and the running track at the west end of Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, (No. 10 in FY18);
- The reconstruction of Edsall Avenue from 71st Place to 73rd Place to deal with the street’s extensive ponding conditions by rebuilding the street with a new sewer line, catch basins, curbing and a new roadway surface, (No. 13 in FY18); and
- To replace or repower polluting Stage Zero freight engines leased by New York & Atlantic Railway hauling NYC municipal waste through CB 5, (No. 7 in FY18).
The only project from last year’s survey that dropped out of the top 10 is the plan to construct an athletic field at the Department of Environmental Protection’s (EPA) Newtown Creek Aeration Facility property, which slipped to No. 13 this year.
The full Community Board will vote on the projects at the CB 5 monthly meeting to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 11, at Christ the King High School in Middle Village.
