Volume 20 Issue 12 | August 3 – 9, 2007
Paying Paul
After months of sorting out approvals with the city and the Borough President’s office, C.B. 1 has finally managed to pay former district manager Paul Goldstein the roughly $34,000 in back vacation pay that it owed him after 23 years on the job.
“We paid him off, finally,” said board treasurer Joel Kopel, drawing laughter from the crowd at Tuesday night’s full board meeting. The back pay had turned into something of a running joke during the monthly treasurer’s report, since Goldstein still attends many board meetings in his current capacity as an aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Kopel would often gesture to Goldstein and promise, sheepishly, that they’d pay him sometime soon.
With the debt settled, the board can now move forward with hiring a new community liason — a position that has been vacant since the end of 2006, when Anne Dworakivsky left the post.
The board is still quibbling with the city over the fate of an extra $13,000 that had been set aside as contingency money for the Goldstein payment. Under city rules, the board would have to give the unspent cash back to the general coffers. The board, on the other hand, would prefer to spend the dough in the district.
“Thirteen thousand? That’s like seven street fairs!” said Rick Landman, referring to the fairs that act as fundraisers for board activities.
There is no word on how Goldstein plans to spend his long-awaiting final paycheck, but might we recommend a nice vacation?
Stairs to sea?
The Daily News reported Wednesday that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is seriously considering the suggestion — proposed and supported by Community Board 1 members — to send the Vesey St. staircase to Governors Island.
The News reported that the development corp. may put the stairs on a barge off the island, thus keeping the 175-ton World Trade Center remnant from holding up construction of a potential new school at Site 2B in Battery Park City. The idea of storing the stairs temporarily on the school site has been a sore point with local residents.
Though no decision has been made yet, officials must move or dismantle the stairs soon in order to move forward with building the foundation for the new W.T.C. towers.
Ante up
Manhattan Youth Director and Community Board 1 member Bob Townley assured C.B. 1 members last week that Manhattan Youth’s new community center, which is set to open early next spring on Warren St., will have space available for board meetings and functions. The center will even have special tables for the board, Townley said, which will have a different design from the rest of the center’s furniture.
Different, but perhaps not different enough for Youth Committee Chairperson Paul Hovitz, who grinned and joked, “Will they be poker tables?”
Local buzz
Our offices were buzzing last week when a six-pack of GURU energy drinks arrived via messenger in a big blue bag.
After samples all around, we agreed that the herb-based drinks, which come in tangerine, lemon-lime or green tea, didn’t taste half-bad. The highly caffeinated compound was also all-natural and certified organic, which made us feel a little better about our buzz.
Yet, we couldn’t comprehend why the loopy liquid had arrived in our offices — until we read the small print. Turns out that GURU, which was founded in Montreal in 1999, is now based at 295 Greenwich St., right across from Tribeca’s P.S. 234. We can only hope, for the teachers’ sake, that the students haven’t gotten their hands on any free samples.
