By Stephen Stirling
More than $600,000 in city funding allocated to the Bowne House has not been cut during the budget process and renovation to the historic home’s roof will continue as scheduled despite a series of mysterious e−mails to the contrary, according to the Historic House Trust.
Historic House Trust Executive Director Franklin Vagnone said e−mails sent by a member of the Bowne House Historical Society’s board of directors, claiming the city was planning to eliminate $628,000 designated for renovations, were mistaken. Although the budget has yet to be finalized, Vagnone, who heads the city Parks Department−affiliated Historic House Trust, said $628,000 has been moved to the 2013 fiscal year, but the city Parks Department still has $1.7 million that will go toward fixing the roof of the Bowne House and completing other needed restoration work in the coming year.
During the last several weeks, e−mails that Vagnone said were written by board member Susan Hefti have been sent to various news agencies and elected officials, claiming $604,000 in funding for Bowne House had been trimmed from the 2010 city budget.
But although Bowne House Historical Society President Rosemarie Vietor said the city is considering moving the $628,000 for the project to 2013, she said the plans for the house itself remain unchanged.
“As far as we know, the funding is intact,” she said. “That’s what the [city] Parks Department and the Historic Houses Trust told me, so I have to take them at their word.”
The city budget had not been finalized as of press time.
Vietor added that she had no idea where the e−mails, which prompted reaction from elected officials like state Sen. Frank Padavan (R−Bellerose), came from.
“It was not from us,” Vietor said. “I’ve been around long enough to know that there are rumors that fly around, but I don’t know where it came from.”
Vagnone, who wrote to Padavan in response to a letter the senator sent to Mayor Michael Bloomberg demanding the funding be restored, said Hefti’s remarks were inaccurate.
“I am in constant contact with the President of the BHHS Board, and it is clear that the board member that is disseminating these e−mails does not speak for the BHHS or the HTT,” Vagnone wrote.
Vietor said the Bowne House Historical Society has already raised more than $700,000 in private funding for the project and is ready to begin renovations, but work cannot begin until the Parks Department takes control of the property, which has been slow to happen.
“We’ve met every goal the city has set for us,” she said. “Now we’re just waiting for the transfer to occur.”
Vagnone said he expects the transfer to be completed in the near future.
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e−mail at sstirling@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 138.
