Students at P.S. 83 now have a state-of-the-art learning resource that was dedicated on Thursday, February 5 to the music of a student band that played hits from decades past on guitars and bongos.
Councilman Jimmy Vacca provided much of the funding for the library – $300,000. Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. also contributed $100,000 to build new bookcases, open a classroom-learning area, install ten new computer workstations.
The project, which caused the library to be closed at the start of the school-year, required that a wall torn down, new lighting installed, and new electrical outlets.
“I think that this is a very important day for P.S. 83,” Councilman Vacca said at the dedication. “I am a product of the public school system, and I make funding of schools my priority because I know that they are often underfunded. Libraries were where I learned, reviewed, and researched. Libraries are still relevant to the students of today.”
Principal Ben Soccodato of P.S. 83 said that much of the credit goes to the former budget director to Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr., Bob Nolan, who helped with the budgeting process for the new library.
“Many times when I was district manager of Community Board 10, Bob Nolan would call me up and ask me what he could do to make sure that our area of the Bronx got the support it needed,” Vacca said. “I want to make sure that more worthwhile projects like this library construction go on in our historically underfunded communities.”
Librarian Eric Nueman said that the new digs allows a class to take place in the library and not be interrupted if other students come in to check out books or use the computers.
“The library before the renovation was outdated, and did not function the way a library was supposed to function,” Neuman said.
