I hope that everyone had a happy holiday season. The arrival of 2012 should bring some good changes to Marine Park.

First, the long-awaited Marine Park Community Center is on track for a fall opening. After meeting with Parks Department officials, I was assured that the new contractors are more than capable of completing the project. The second “change” for Marine Park will be the downsizing of the Kimball Street Project. The builders lost their appeal to the BSA for a zoning variance and must now begin tearing down a portion of the building. We will continue to monitor the situation until bricks begin to come down.

The Civic Association has received a lot of complaints from members about the cleanliness of Marine Park. I met with the Brooklyn Commissioner, Kevin Jeffrey and Parks Department official Marty Marr to figure out a way to insure that the park is properly maintained. With budget cuts hitting Marine Park particularly hard, the Civic Association is going to start working with the Parks Department to come up with alternative ways to help improve the quality of the park. We will keep you posted on our progress.

I look forward to seeing you at our first meeting of 2012, on January 17 at 8:00 pm.