One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000) In Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds Up For Grabs - RIRA Committee Formed To Evaluate Applicants And Make Recommendations To RIOC

 Pile Of Money Image From Richwealthpig

Below is Matt Katz's Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President's Report to the January RIRA meeting sent in by Mr. Katz. Among the topics Mr. Katz addresses is the creation of a RIRA  Public Purpose Fund Committee that is charged with making recommendations to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) for the distribution of $100,000 to Roosevelt Island organizations.  More about that after Mr. Katz's report.

Mr. Katz's report to the RIRA Council should not be confused with the RIRA Report/Column, versions of which previously appeared in both the Main Street WIRE and this Blog for the past two years. As previously reported, Mr. Katz has deferred to the Editor of the Main Street WIRE the decision as to how and where the RIRA Report/Column may be presented in the media and any future RIRA web site. The Main Street WIRE editor continues to refuse to allow the column to be published in full on this blog.

Here is Mr. Katz's report:

 RIRA President’s Report – January 5, 2011

1. Welcome back, everyone. I hope your holidays were delightful. Our reconstituted committees have been busy over the last month, and I hope you’ve had a chance to read their activity reports.

2. Tonight we will reconstitute and elect the Chair of the Public Purpose Fund Committee, charged with the responsibility of allocating $100,000 from the RIOC Operating budget to various Island organizations. This has been one of the more interesting jobs that RIRA has taken on over the last four years, and I hope you will consider volunteering to take part. I’ve learned that eight Island organizations have applied for grants this year, asking for a total of $164,373.00. The Committee will be given
the applications in about a week’s time, after RIOC has vetted them for completeness. There will be more than enough time available for the Committee members to read the applications, interview the applicants and come to their conclusions for approval by the Common Council at our March 2nd meeting. RIOC CFO, Steve Chironis, has told me that the RIOC Board of Directors will likely meet to consider our recommendations when they next meet on April 6, having declined to schedule a March meeting.

3. Following up on some material I mentioned last time, our Governor emeritus, David Paterson, vetoed the hydrofracking moratorium bill passed by both houses of the State Legislature that would have stopped the practice at least until this May. He put in place a somewhat watered- down version, and it remains to be seen how this will affect the industry’s efforts to extract gas from shale in New York State and ultimately, how this process will impact the aquifer that supplies all of New York City’s water. I hope Ellen Polivy will continue to keep us informed.

4. I have received a completed permit authorizing our use of the Good Shepherd Community Center through the end of the year. It has been my practice to reserve this facility on a calendar-year basis. Our next meeting will return to Good Shepherd, and I hope all the work on the new HVAC systems will be complete and our community room warm and cozy.

5. At the Orientations I held in November, I loaned two of my copies of Robert’s Rules of Order to new members, but I don’t remember who. I recommend that everyone keep a copy of Robert’s Revised edition as a reference, but regardless, it’s January and I would like my copies back.

RIOC CFO Steve Chironis provides a list of those organizations in the running for Public Purpose Grants.

Please be advised that the following Public Purpose Grant Applications for 2011/2012 were received;

1.) Roosevelt Island Seniors Association - $ 20,000
2.) Roosevelt Island Disabled Association - $ 9,105
3.) R&R Concerts Inc. - $ 9,600
4.) Island Kids Inc. - $ 25,000
5.) RICLA $ 19,500
6.) PS/IS 217 PTA $ 26,558
7.) RI Historical Society $ 20,000
8.) Life Frames Inc. $ 34,610
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$164,373
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The applications will be vetted for completeness and then will be forwarded sometime next week to RIRA. RIRA will evaluate and then make a recommendation to the RIOC Board.

The guidelines and criteria for evaluating Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds Grant Applicants are listed here. Factors include:

a)    Proportion of recipients who are residents of Roosevelt Island.
b)    Preference will be given to organizations that can provide services to the widest population of residents, regardless of their economic condition.
c)    Amount of services delivered to the economically disadvantaged.
d)    Frequency of need — Is this a one-time request or is it expected to be a recurring request?
e)    Proven history of service to the community.
f)    Extent of volunteerism in the organization — how much of the group's needs are filled by donated time and/or materials?
g)    Availability of "matching" grants or services — will a RIOC grant improve the chances of receiving additional monies or services form outside groups?
h)    Efforts to secure grants from other sources. i)    Normally, RIRA will not recommend funding to cover 100% of salaries.

The 2010 Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds recipients were:

• Island Kids $20,000;
  
• LifeFrames $19,000;
  
• Marlins $18,000;
  
• PTA $25,500;
  
• RICLA $9,500;
  
• RIHS Kiosk $3,000 and
  
• Seniors $5,000.

The 2009 Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds Recipients were:

• $0 Child School
• $36,000 Island Kids
• $20,000 Life Frames
• $0 Orphans International
• $10,000 RICLA
• $4,000 RI Day Nursery
• $25,000 RI Disabled Association and
• 5,000 RI Seniors Association
  

Looks like the only new Roosevelt Island organization seeking Public Purpose Funds for this year is R&R Concerts.

Octagon RIRA Common Council Representative Bill Long was named Chair of the RIRA Public Purpose Committee. Mr. Long was one of the RIRA representatives who voted in favor of the RIRA censorship motion.

More information available on Roosevelt Island Public Purpose Funds from previous posts here.