Notes from the CB14 Monthly Meeting
Community Board 14 met last night for its monthly meeting, which the public is welcome to attend. If you’d like to get an idea of how government works at a very local level, the next meeting is on Monday, June 11. Until then, here’s what you missed:
• Congressman Bob Turner made an appearance and took a number of questions, discussing his stance on items from student loans (money for gov grants and loans will be reduced, which he reasons is because “we’re going off a cliff” with gov spending) to the president’s budget (he said he found it “insultingly bad”). On a local level, about the transit bill, he said New York reps got together to make it more mass transit friendly, but that “transportation bills are a nightmare.”
• The proposed 6% cut to the Community Board’s budget is no longer in the executive budget proposal, and that budget amount will be the baseline in future years.
• Given that the Midwood Development Corporation has withdrawn support from the DOT’s plan for Dorman Square (Elm Ave and E 15th in Midwood), CB14 members argued whether to vote the proposal down completely or postpone a vote until September–postponement won.
• Close to 600 young people attended the annual Youth Conference. To help determine what youth programs in our area may need financial assistance to keep those young people engaged, attend the Youth Services Committee Meeting on June 14.
• And if you know young people interested in learning more about opportunities at federal, state, and city agencies, there’s a Muslim Youth Career Day this Saturday, May 19 from 10am to 3pm at Kingsborough Community College. Word is there will be a presidential limo on site. Email copousa@copousa.org for more info or to register.
• It’s not all about young people! There’s a program called ReServe, which matches professionals ages 55+ with non-profits that need their services.
• Assemblymembers Rhoda Jacobs and Jim Brennan are hosting no-cost breast cancer awareness and mammogram screenings in front of their office on Cortelyou Road. A mobile van from the American Italian Cancer Foundation will be available on Thursday, June 7. Call their office 718-434-0446 for more info or to schedule an appointment.
• Though we’ve got our Cortelyou Library open again, you may live closer to one of our other area branches, and they’re getting the same self-checkout services installed. The Flatbush branch, which was closed last month, reopened with the new services earlier this month, and now Midwood is closed–it shut down last Friday, and is expected to reopen on Monday, June 11.
• And if you like having libraries around, consider signing this petition to stop a $27 million cut to their city funding–that’s a 1/3 reduction to their current budget.