Tony Nunziato for NY State Assembly - Hearing on the budget

Two speakers asked the board to support public libraries and the preservation of a former Maspeth church, respectively, during a public hearing regarding the advisory body's priorities for the city's fiscal year 2010 capital and expense budget.

District Manager Gary Giordano noted that the board is required to submit to the city next month a list of items and services which it feels are needed in the district that covers Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village, such as road resurfacing and sewer projects. As a basis for the new list, the board's Executive Committee will meet later this month and review last year's set of capital and expense budget priorities as well as surveys completed by board members. The committee will then develop a list of capital and expense budget priorities that will be presented to the full advisory body for approval at their October meeting.

A spokesperson for the Queens Borough Public Library asked the board to continue its support of local branches in the coming fiscal year. Raul Gordillo noted that their previous support helped convince the city to preserve funding for sixday library service despite instituting a three-percent budget cut for QBPL.

Maspeth activist Tony Nunziato, a candidate for State Assembly, also urged the advisory body to make funding for the restoration of St. Saviour's Church a top priority. Preservationists are currently seeking to rebuild and restore the disassembled church at a plot of land inside Lutheran/All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village.

From "Neighbor, Post Can't Get Along" by Rob Pozarycki, Times Newsweekly.