2007 Annual Meeting
 To view a slideshow of the Kew Gardens Civic Association 2007 Annual Meeting, click here. |
The 93rd Annual Meeting of the Kew Gardens Civic Association, held May 2 at the Kew Gardens Community Center of the Queens Community House, was well attended by a crowd of about 130 that ranged in age from Simon Tuchman, 4½ months old, to Lillian Kurz, who at 95 can boast of being one of the Association’s most senior members.
After the hour-long reception, President Dominick Pistone acknowledged the yeoman services of Betty Francullo, Dagmar Cermak and Glenda Maurer who had prepared a table of cheeses, fruits and cakes; Frederick S. Baum and Sabra Turnbull who had tended bar; and Bill Wisnewski who had played the piano.
The proposed slate of Board members was unanimously adopted. The only changes on the Board were the departures of two members: Sabra Turnbull will be moving, and Thomas Stewart stepped down, citing business reasons.
The first speaker of the evening was Detective Inspector Paul Piekarski, who gave an upbeat summary of a declining crime rate in the 102nd Precinct and told homeowners that inroads were being made on graffiti with the help of regular cleanups. Members of the audience pointed out some traffic problem spots as, for example, on 116th Street at Metropolitan Avenue, where cars illegally parked across from Dunkin’ Donuts are potential hazards.
D. I. Piekarski urged homeowners with complaints to attend the monthly Precinct Council meetings, held every third Tuesday at Moose Lodge, across the street from the 102nd Precinct at 87-34 118th Street, Richmond Hill.
The evening’s featured speaker was Robert H. Lieberman, a Cornell University physics professor who is also a novelist and film maker. Dr. Lieberman’s latest movie, Last Stop Kew Gardens, a documentary on how children of refugee parents grew up in Kew Gardens in the 40s and 50s, had had its world premiere two evenings earlier at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan. Dr. Lieberman graduated from P. S 99 and told of being a classmate of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel at Forest Hills High School. He reminisced about his own growing-up in the community in the days when there were still horse-drawn milk wagons, when he earned 25 cents an hour as a delivery boy, Bohack’s was still the local supermarket and Mimi’s Candy Store on Lefferts Boulevard still delighted young and old.
On another historical note, homeowners were asked to vote on the costly restoration of the Statue of Civic Virtue, which has stood at Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike since 1941, when Mayor LaGuardia banished it there from City Hall Park. The controversial statue is in great disrepair and would cost the City well over $1 million to restore. The alternative choice was demolition. Agreeing with Community Board 9, but not with Borough President Helen Marshall, homeowners present overwhelmingly supported saving the statue, which was designed by noted sculptor Frederick MacMonnies. An extensive history of the statue is available on the website www.oldkewgardens.com.
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