This summer, the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association broke from tradition when they decided to continue their monthly meetings throughout the summer. The meeting hall, at 78-15 Jamaica Avenue, is comfortably air-conditioned -- and attendance has been on the rise, so the decision was made to keep the momentum going. And in the days leading up to the August meeting, WRBA President Vance Barbour was hitting the streets, handing out brochures telling the residents of Woodhaven how to deal with noise complaints -- and while he had their attention, he was inviting them to the August Town Hall. Note: Click here for an electronic copy of the Noise Brochure. Another break from tradition was the new seating format that was adopted -- one that would encourage more audience participation. And as we showed in a report last week, the audience was very involved. Note: Click here for a previous report in which the old seating arrangement is visible. But before the meeting could start, we had a little business to take care of -- it was Vance's birthday and we celebrated by having cake. Cake always gets a meeting off to a good start! Around 8 PM, the meeting began -- everyone took their seats -- and the evening's guests began to arrive. And we had quite a lineup and the next few pictures show. Shown below: Senator Joseph P. Addabbo and Council Member Elizabeth Crowley. And below, Senator Joe again and Council Member Eric Ulrich. At the start of the meeting, Vance Barbour explained to the members that the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association is flat broke. As noted in previous reports, the WRBA's funding was gutted this year -- leaving us in the position of having to do more with less. Vance went on to urge the attendees to tell their neighbors, help spread the word -- and he explained how we need to show our elected officials that we have residents who care, and who are paying attention. Here's a small clip of the introduction to the meeting.
The WRBA meets the 3rd Wednesday of every month at the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corp. at 78-15 Jamaica Avenue. The next meeting will be September 16th at 8 PM. Our first guest speaker was State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo. Sen. Addabbo spoke about the recent mess up in Albany, the approach they are taking to meet the budget, the issue of mayoral control, etc. And he finishes up by speaking about the efforts to get the Jamaica Avenue El train repaired and painted, vowing to get the public's attention, a promise he made good on a few days later with a press conference that garnered coverage in The Queens Chronicle, The Queens Courier, The Leader-Observer, and NY1 News. Here's Senator Joe speaking to Woodhaven:
Note: Senator Addabbo also spoke about a program he's co-sponsoring with the American Italian Cancer Foundation -- free mammograms on Saturday October 17th. There will be a mobile mammography van in front of the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corp. (78-15 Jamaica Avenue) that day -- an appointment is necessary -- call 1-800-453-8378 Ext. 1. Click here to view more information Click here to view this information en Español Next up, Council Member Elizabeth Crowley (District 30) addressed the audience. Ms. Crowley spoke about some of the improvements going at the Library and at PS 97. And she also brought us some good news by announcing a reversal of some of the funding cuts the WRBA received. And then she spoke about some of the repairs and enhancements at the Forest Park Bandshell -- new benches and decorative fencing. On that last point, the fencing, Ms. Crowley was questioned by Nick Comaianni, who was a candidate to replace former Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio until Governor Patterson called for a special election. The bandshell fencing seemed to generate a mixed reaction, and it sounded like Community Board 9 was going to get involved, so the jury is still out on that one. Here's some video of Ms. Crowley addressing the residents of Woodhaven:
And then, Council Member Eric Ulrich (District 32) took his turn at the mike. Eric spoke about this program to combat graffiti, which we covered in a previous report. He explained how the program works to discourage vandals and how you can call for FREE cleaning, should your property be damaged by graffiti. Here is some video from Eric's speech:
The residents interacted with all 3, asking questions, taking notes. It was good to see this kind of participation -- hopefully, the trend will continue. Note: After the presentations above, we were addressed by candidates for the Assembly -- and we will be showing highlights from those presentations in a future report. To see how the Queens Courier covered this meeting, click here. 
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