Goodhue Center nets nearly $500K in federal funding for improvements
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A New Brighton institution announced nearly half a million dollars in federal funding Thursday after receiving more than $50 million in city funds last year.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) joined kids, staff and community members at the Goodhue Center to announce the $494,000 in the federal budget that will go to a variety of improvements, including a new gymnasium floor.
Goodhue, a Children’s Aid Society program, offers Staten Island kids and their families a variety of services, including after school programs, team sports and a summer camp program.
The congresswoman tied the importance of the program to her own youth when she attended after-school programs as both her parents worked full-time.
“It’s just a great organization that gives these kids something productive to be doing when they’re not in school,” she said. “I was a kid who was in the after-school center, because my parents also worked full-time and got home very late. So, I know what it’s like to have fun at these programs and also learn at the same time.”
Thursday’s funding announcement follows a summer that saw the city commit $52.9 million in funding that will allow the center to enclose its outdoor swimming pool, build a new community center and permanently preserve 11 acres of the property as public parkland.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Borough President James Oddo made the announcement during the “City Hall in Your Borough” program that happened in August.
Goodhue Director Ilene Pappert, a part of Goodhue for over 40 years, said Thursday that construction of a new center could take up to four years, but the federal funding would help maintain the campus until then.
In addition to a new gym floor at the community center, Pappert said the funding would help with day-to-day improvements like fixing electrical works and paving roads on the Goodhue grounds.
“We don’t want to let down our guard [for] one minute,” she said. “We need to have the buildings ready for kids to play and to be here, and for parents to know they can go to work knowing their kids are going to be safe here.”
The city’s 11-acre acquisition last summer was the third leg in a 15-year sale buying 37 acres of the Goodhue property from the Children’s Aid Society.
The Parks Department began negotiating the deal with CAS in 2006 to acquire the land to create a new public park, and avoid sale to a private developer. The department was successful in purchasing 15 acres in 2012 and then 11.5 acres in 2014.
The Children’s Aid Society has operated the 41-acre site since 1911, and each year the organization serves approximately 1,000 children and adults on Staten Island.
That’s in addition to the nearly 200 youth in Goodhue’s after-school program and the estimated 400 children who attend the summer day camp.
“As I’m getting closer to the end of my career here, I really feel like this is going to be my legacy. We saved this land for the community,” Pappert said. “It was the right thing to do.”