Millions in Unused Funds May Finally Come to Use in Local Parks

If you need to use the restroom while in Little Bay Park, you may have to hold it for a long time.

The Dept. of Parks and Recreation expects to put the job of construction of the bathrooms—and the rest —out for bid by the end of this summer, but the federal and city government allocated the money in 2004 and 2005.  

Six and seven years later, the projects still dawdle in bureaucratic review.

The projects include  $4.2 million to expand the parking lot of Fort Totten Park—adjacent to Little Bay Park, and to build an overpass over the Cross Island Parkway, according to Parks & Rec.

A spokesperson for the agency said that while the process has taken “longer than anticipated,” park-goers should remember that the facilities are to be built near Little Neck Bay, which raise the demands for review and regulation.

“The parking lot expansion and comfort station project at Little Bay Park involves multiagency coordination as the facilities are located near wetlands and require a new sewer line to be added,” the agency said in a statement. “Although navigating through the multilevel regulatory process has taken longer than anticipated, we expect to put the project out to bid, pending approvals from the State, by the end of this summer.”

The projects, which a spokesman said must go forward all together in order to meet federal matching funds requirements, are now being reviewed by the State Department of Transportation.

“Seven years have now passed and neither project has experienced a shovel-in-the-ground,” , Warren Schrieber.

“As we are all too well aware, co-mingling funds is never good practice,” Schreiber said, adding, “It inevitably results in a loss of accountability and a worst case scenario can be an intentional or unintentional misuse of the financial allocation.”