Historically, the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association would pack it up for the winter, and not meet during the months of November through February. This past winter, the WRBA broke that tradition, and held Winter meetings on Saturdays -- and the turnout for each meeting was really good. Here are some of the "headlines" from this month's meeting:
One of the last headlines from the meeting was the finances of the WRBA and the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The financial difficulties of the WRHVAC has been well documented on this site (see The Pasta Dinner), and the WRBA is in similar financial trouble. The WRBA's story is not unique -- other civic organizations are suffering, as well, though some of them have managed to wrangle some funding. Over the past calendar year, though, the WRBA has received nothing.
Now much of this was because of the unsettled positions of our local representatives -- we know that they have tried their best for us, and we appreciate it. And, of course, Anthony Seminerio's shenanigans hurt us all deeply. As a result, the WRBA received zero dollars in the last calendar year. Because of that, we had to seriously cut back -- notable, we had to abandon our printed newsletter in favor of an online version -- but we're trying to do things a little different, and our recent relaunch of our newsmagazine, The Voice Of Woodhaven, received some media attention, getting a mention in the NY Daily News, and the New York Post. Because of the money we've managed to save, we're proud to announce that we were able to make a small donation of $500 to the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Below, here I am with Vice President Janet Chan-Smith handing over a check to WRHVAC CEO Kathy Sexton-Dalby.
The Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps is a wonderful organization that needs and deserves the support of Woodhaven. We're happy that we were able to help, even if it was just this little amount.
As for the meeting itself, we got started a little late. We had a little trouble hanging up our banner. This month saw the start of a new feature of our meetings -- the display of our sponsors on the wall. Our sponsors -- most of them businessowners in Woodhaven and the surrounding communities -- were a huge reason why were were able to keep our doors open. And speaking of our sponsors, here are two of them -- Assemblyman Mike Miller and Councilman Eric Ulrich. Both of these representatives have taken out advertisements in our newsmagazine, and it's greatly appreciated!
Note: Most of the following photographs are courtesy of Joe Virgona.
Below, the board members of the WRBA -- from left to right, Communications Director Alex Blenkinsopp, Treasurer Vance Barbour, Vice President Janet Chan-Smith, Yours Truly President Edward Wendell, Secretary Arlene Annunziata, and Financial Secretary Maria Thomson. After the formalities were out of the way, our Assemblyman Mike Miller stepped up to speak with the residents. Mike has been working hard to make himself available to the residents of Woodhaven -- he calls Project Woodhaven On The Air every Friday, and if you want to speak with him, that's a great opportunity! Click here at 10 PM to listen to the show, and the number to call and speak is 646-378-1612. Mike spoke to us about the MTA battles -- and thanks to Mike and all our representatives -- Eric, Elizabeth, and Joe -- it looks like our local transit has been saved! Here's how Mike's meeting with the Woodhaven residents went.
And here is Part 2 of his discussion:
It should be noted that Mike has attended every Town Hall since being elected, taking part in the discussions, and treating us to Sal's Pizza: However, he'll be in Albany during the week, doing the people's work, as they say. So we won't be seeing him at our mid-week Town Halls for a while. But, as noted above, he'll be around on weekends at his office on Woodhaven Boulevard just off of Park Lane South -- and you can always catch him on Friday Nights on our radio show. Also, his number is (718) 805-0950 and he's got a new Facebook Page where you can leave him messages. Next up was our Councilman, Eric Ulrich. Eric's also on Facebook -- so we were tipped off that Saturday was his birthday. And being a bunch of friendly Woodhavenites, we greeted Eric with a song:
Here is Part 2 of his discussion with the residents:
The rest of the meeting was spent discussing various issues while we munched on pizza. Kate Mooney, representing Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, updated us on her activities. CM Crowley was just named chairwoman of the Fire and Criminal Justice Committee - and we trust that she will be a fierce critic of any plans to shut down our firehouses. One of the big issues we discussed was the cleanup of the ice and snow. This section below was discussed, the area beneath the trestle at the border between us and Richmond Hill. No one ever shovels that spot and it becomes a thick layer of ice before long. The picture below was taken a few days after the storm, and you can see that there is still ice. And the performance of the sanitation department was raised. We know it's a difficult job and we appreciate their hard work. But there were some streets that simply never got plowed. From what we saw, most of the North-South streets got plowed all right. But some of the East-West streets didn't do so good. Here is 86th Road between 89th Street and Woodhaven Boulevard. It might not look it from this picture, but that snow in the middle of the street was 6 or 8 inches high and rock hard. This street never saw a plow. You can see the ice all the way to the Boulevard. Here's 86th Avenue between 91st Street and Woodhaven Boulevard. This was taken after the dusting we got, covering the ice that had been sitting there for a week. This street never saw a plow. We need to get organized. After each storm, we need to coordinate and get a listing of each street that didn't get plowed. But before that can happen, we need bodies. We need folks who aren't content living in our neighborhood as it is -- who want to see improvements. There's a lot we can all do together. Our next meeting is on March 17th -- St. Patrick's Day. 8 PM at the Ambulance Corps (78-15 Jamaica Avenue). We hope to see you there! If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com . 
