BOARD MEETING - 9/24/24

Called to Order by Lourdes 9/24/24 at 8:10PM

Present: Lourdes, Rich, Ginnie, Liz, Michael, Jeff, Lauren, Jim

Absent: Manny, Indra, John

Lourdes - discussed creating a nominating committee for the upcoming Board and Officer elections.  Jim is one of the Board members up for re-election this year so cannot be the Chairman.  Jeff agreed to be the Chair, Liz will be the Committee Member and one more person will be chosen from the general BCCA membership at the October meeting.  All four current Board members up for re-election this year are staying on.  With the possibility of Phil wanting to run for President and actual voting, necessary paper ballots will have to be available at the November (or December meeting ?).

Rich - Angela's civic is currently inactive.  There was discussion about merging with Angela's civic.  Their treasurer reports about $11K currently in their account.  Rich advised that it would be complicated to merge and feels that BCCA would become much larger.  Rich feels that we should remain separate but perhaps someone could be found to take over the reins. Board members agreed.

Lauren - Representative from SNAP will be at the October meeting at 7:30PM to speak for about 15 minutes about available services and then take questions.

Jim - Storefront on Hillside between 251 and 252 Streets Bellerose Senior Services.  Should we investigate?

Conversation about the drug bust at the storefront on Little Neck Parkway near Jericho Tpke.

Ginnie - noted that the median on Little Neck Parkway north of Jericho Tpke was being cleaned up.

Lourdes - spoke about the event/visit at the HERRC location at Creedmore that she attended.  Present were Donovan Richards, Parks, DOS, NYPD, Community Affairs, SNAP and HERRC Director.  It was supposed to address community concerns but was "hijacked" by Richards who wanted to allow a walk through of the tents but it was not allowed privacy etc reasons given.  Lourdes felt it was really pointless and even if the walk-through was allowed and bad conditions noted, what would really be done?

Lourdes polled the Board members about whether or not they would have participated in the walk through.  All said "No" mostly because of privacy issues for the migrants and all felt that is was a "stunt" by Donovan Richards who hijacked the event and should have know they would not be able to enter the tents.

Liz - expressed concern over her son's disturbing experience having to ride the bus with the migrants.  She is anxious to have the installation removed and the area returned to normal.

It was not what the community leaders came for.  It was about community concerns.  There are often people"sight seeing" outside the compound.  The area is supposed to be cleaned 2 to 3 times per day (DOS or Parks?). Rich observed that there should be more places inside the gates for the migrants to sit instead of loitering outside.  Also, the 30 day turn over for migrants to re-register means some will return but there will always be a new group that HERRC needs to retrain.