Federal Projects for District

Congressman Towns works hard each year to bring vital federal dollars back home to Brooklyn to spur economic development, improve health services and increase educational opportunities. Over the years, Congressman Towns has brought over $1 billion in federal funding to Brooklyn to meet the needs of his constituents.

In 2010, Congressman Towns secured funding for the following vital projects and services in the 10th Congressional District:

  • $900,000 for Brooklyn College, City University of New York to purchase research equipment. This equipment will enable research on new sources of biofuel, and the development of methods for processing fuels to reduce or eliminate hazardous materials and waste, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to the creation of alternative fuels.
     
  • $3,000,000 for The Thurgood Marshall College Fund Minority Energy Science Initiative to increase the number of minority scholars pursuing careers in energy science, by providing access to research experience and assistance.
     
  • $1,000,000 for The Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research to focus on plant and renewable energy technologies that will improve the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture; develop technologies that will lessen the country’s dependence on foreign energy supplies and create new renewable energy industries and new jobs in the state of New York and nationwide. The research will produce technological innovations for higher quality crops and cropping practices, improved biomass energy production, commercially valuable alternative co-products, objective information on the relationship between genetically engineered plants and the environment, prevention/remediation of hazardous wastes, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
     
  • $650,000 for St. Francis College to support St. Francis College’s Project Access, a program which has opened the doors to college education for many New Yorker’s from disadvantaged backgrounds who otherwise would not have been able to pursue a degree.
     
  • $400,000 for Technology and Science Equipment Upgrades of St. Joseph's College to be used to fund the purchase of computer technology and laboratory equipment for science labs, interactive whiteboards for smart classrooms for pre-service teachers and technology for two distance-learning classrooms.
     
  • $300,000 for Jewish Community Council of Canarsie to be used to address unmet nutritional, emotional and financial needs of at-risk Holocaust survivors residing in New York’s 10th Congressional District, an area with one of the largest Holocaust survivor populations in the world. A collaboration between the Jewish Community Council of Canarsie, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg will provide comprehensive case management services, psychosocial support groups, home visitations, counseling, prepared meal deliveries, nutritional counseling, and socialization opportunities for individuals who suffer deteriorating physical and mental conditions and experience a lack of extended family supports, compounded by trauma, nightmares and loneliness.
     
  • $550,000 for Ohel Children's Home and Family Services to be used to support the Ohel’s comprehensive Adult Mental Health Program which assists individuals and families with severe and persistent mental illness by providing them with opportunities for treatment and independence.
     
  • $250,000 for Community Cultural and Education Center of the Brooklyn Children's Museum to be used to complete construction of a canopy to cover the Community Cultural and Education Center which is located on the rooftop. The canopy will enable the museum to use the space for its education programs and community events three seasons of the year.
     
  • $300,000 for Fort Greene Park Conservancy to be used for landscaping, signage and sidewalk renovations around the Revolutionary War Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.
     
  • $600,000 for Groundwork, Inc's Neighborhood Family Support Center to develop and build the Groundwork Community Center, which will host early childhood programs, after-school and summer programs for school age youth, and family support programs including counseling, legal, financial, and benefits counseling, to serve children and families in the community of East New York, Brooklyn.
     
  • $115,000 for New York City College of Technology (CUNY) to augment the capacity of the Brooklyn Small Business Development Center to respond to the needs and demands of small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs during this recession.
     
  • $85,000 for Pratt Institute to create the Pratt "Green" Community Career and Business Training Center which will work with existing and new small businesses to create green careers in the local community using green business technologies and strategies.
     
  • $100,000 for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice - to establish a National Academy for Reentry Policy and Practice. This program will provide comprehensive and cross-disciplinary skill development and training to public administrators and others charged with managing prisoner re-entry throughout the country.
     
  • $600,000 for The Doe Fund, Inc. to support the programs Ready, Willing & Able, which helps individuals permanently break the cycles of incarceration, dependency, and addiction by providing paid work, case management, vocational training, drug testing and counseling services, literacy and educational classes, and other supportive services to formerly incarcerated or homeless individuals that comprise the program.
     
  • $200,000 for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) Brooklyn Youth Initiatives to help secure two community-oriented after-school programs—Arts & Justice (formally Courtroom Drama/Drawing on Justice) and the Dance Africa Education Program—with special focus on developing creative- and critical-thinking skills in at-risk youth and combating teenage delinquency through collaborations with Red Hook Youth Court, the Urban Assembly for Law and Justice, and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. BAM is the largest performing arts center in Brooklyn, and one of the borough’s leading cultural institutions.
     
  • $150,000 for Brown Memorial Baptist Church to support an after-school program for at-risk youth which provides homework assistance, music, arts, nutritional awareness, college tours, cultural trips and more for over 100 children.
     
  • $100,000 for the Fountain Avenue Community Development Corporation to create an after- school program in collaboration with the East New York High School of Transit Technology. This innovative program will offer tutoring, homework help and informative workshops on various social issues that will improve the academic, social and emotional competence of at-risk teens, reduce negative youth behaviors, reduce the threat of school violence and provide parents with a safe after-school environment for their teenagers.
     
  • $1,500,000 for Gay Men's Health Crisis, Inc. to launch an HIV prevention campaign for at-risk youth with the ultimate goal of saving lives by decreasing rates of infection among youth communities in New York City. Special emphasis will be placed on areas where infection rates are spiking in the 10th Congressional District, and in Brooklyn in general. Funding will also be used to empower youth with an array of life skills that will lead them toward success and independence.
     
  • $300,000 for Highland Park Community Development Corporation to provide at-risk youth with programs on etiquette/communication skills development, community projects, sports and conflict avoidance training.
     
  • $100,000 for Boys Town New York to continue and expand an integration of the Boys Town Treatment Family Home program and its In-Home Family Services program to serve more at-risk girls and boys who are in the juvenile justice system and their families.
     
  • $1,200,000 for Atair Aerospace to create project ONYX. ONYX will provide a safer and more effective way to drop cargo. Conventional cargo airdrops must be performed at altitudes well below 35,000 feet and at a much slower speed. ONYX will be able to drop cargo at altitudes up to 35,000 feet, speeds up to 150 KIAS, and with a precision of 75 meters. Air crews are much safer at these speeds and altitudes because the many threats of flying at lower altitudes are reduced.
     
  • $3,200,000 for New York Structural Biology Center to build a new, third-generation synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory (NSLS-II.) This proposal would build an experimental end-station at NSLS-II to serve more than 75 research groups and would enable those working on the structure and processes of pathogens, toxins and their antidotes to continue their important research without interruption. If the proposed station is not built, a large community of scientists engaged in nationally vital projects (including those involving the New York Structural Biology Center/U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center collaboration) will be without synchrotron access in the Northeast for an extended period of time, thus delaying or derailing important defense-related research.
     
  • $1,600,000 for Verdant Power to design, engineer, fabricate, assemble, install, operate and monitor an array of Kinetic Hydropower System (KHPS) Turbines capable of generating approximately 1 MW of power at a pilot site. The Navy will provide engineering and deployment support for Verdant Power to demonstrate new turbine technologies in New York and at other sites determined by the Navy.
     
  • $1,920,000 for Polytechnic Institute of NYU to investigate lightweight porous materials in conjunction with other advanced composites, such as sandwich structures and fiber reinforced composites, using theoretical and experimental means. The outcomes of this project will significantly contribute in achieving U.S. Navy's objectives of improving damage tolerance and reducing weight of marine structures.