South East Queens: Park Leaderless

No new parks leader coming to SE Queens

Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski told Community Board 13 Monday that the agency's budget is too tight to hire a parks administrator for southeast Queens.

She was responding to a concern from Peter Richards, the chair of CB 13's Parks Committee, who brought up the issue at the board's meeting Monday at St. Luke's Church in Rosedale.

"Currently, we don't have the funding for it," Lewandowski said. "In the absence of that, we've done a lot of programming and capital improvements" in southeast Queens, she said, referring to concert series, puppet shows and boating outings.

Lewandowski said the larger parks in Queens, such as Flushing Meadows, Alley Pond and Ft. Totten, have administrators.

Hellenbrecht said 10 of the 38 resumes received so far were disqualified because they came from people who lived outside the city. Living within the city is a condition for the job.

Is a park leader really necessary? I have no idea, but time will only tell. It is wonderful news to hear that a park leader must living in the city. If the money is allocated to something that benefits the community more, then more power to them.