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Minutes of the General Membership Meeting of the Westmoreland Association
Minutes of the Nov. 23, 2009 General Membership Meeting
The meeting was called to order at 8:00 P.M. by President Walter Mugdan. A
motion was made, seconded and unanimously adopted to waive reading of the
minutes. (Mr. Mugdan noted that the minutes were available for review on the
Westmoreland website). Treasurer Gary Savage gave the Treasurer’s Report
indicating that the balance-on-hand was $16,450.91 as of November 23, 2009. A
motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s report. The motion was seconded and
the report was unanimously approved.
Old Business:
Parking Regulation – Walter Mugdan wrote to Maureen McCarthy, the NYC
Transportation Commissioner to request a change in the parking regulations in
our neighborhood. As approved at the Association’s September, 2009 meeting, the
letter proposed that there be a once-a-week restriction on parking for several
hours to permit street cleaning. In addition to giving the city the opportunity
to clean our streets, it would prevent long-term parking by outsiders on our
streets. The letter also CC’d Tony Avella, our City Councilman. Tony responded
by writing a letter to the Transportation department asking them to respond to
our request. We have not received a decision from the Transportation Dep’t. at
the time of the meeting.
New Business
Now that a new City Councilman has been elected (Dan Halloran), the Association
needs to list the current concerns we have that can be addressed when we have
the opportunity to meet with him. Some suggestions that were mentioned by the
membership are:
• The Little Neck branch of the Queens public library has been updated recently,
but not expanded. Jerry Ianecce had proposed that a new wing be added to the
current building to expand its capacity and services.
• We should give Dan a briefing about the installation of the Quad gates at the
Long Island Railroad’s Little Neck station. We should ask him to encourage all
the parties concerned to continue to move forward with this project.
• Ask Dan to follow Tony Avella’s lead in getting the Buildings Department to
enforce Covenants that are attached to property deeds. It would relieve the
homeowners in the neighborhood from the time and expense involved in enforcing
compliance.
• We should invite Halloran to one of our upcoming Association meetings.
• Building Codes: A formal process has been put in place for citizens to
challenge plans for a new building or significant modification of an existing
building. Architects are still able to self-certify their plans and drawings.
However now the summary drawings of the plans will go online when the
application is submitted. There is a forty-five day period subsequent to the
online posting during which the plans can be challenged by any member of the
public. If the Buildings Department doesn’t agree with the challenge, then there
is a fifteen day appeal period. However, the onus is on the public to be
vigilant and to find out about the changes before the challenge period expires.
We need to find a way to get notification. Perhaps Dan can help us find a way.
New York State Senator Fran Padavan wrote a letter to all civic leaders asking
them to help defeat a bill introduced in the City Council by Councilwoman
Elizabeth Crowley, Speaker Christine Quinn, and others that would allow
organizations, businesses and politicians to place posters and signs on public
property such as light poles to get a pass for their first offense. This would
allow politicians to avoid the penalties they face for such offenses. Currently
the Campaign Finance Board simply withholds matching funds from politicians to
cover the cost of the fines assess to politicians who violate posting rules.
Our meetings during 2010 will be held on March 15, May 17, September 20 and
November 15.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM.
Respectfully submitted
Charles Manna, Secretary
To view meetings schedules click here
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