The long awaited grand opening of the Westchester Square Civic association has finally arrived.
On Saturday, March 31 at 3 p.m. the civic association, located at 2514 E. Tremont Avenue, opened its doors for a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Elected officials, members of the community, and volunteers were invited to the associations new space for lunch and a sneak peak of the newly renovated space.
“Everything went beautiful,” Rocco said. “We had Senator Jeff Klein as well as Business Development Committee Chairman at Bronx Chamber of Commerce John Bonizio and representatives from the merchants. It was really a good turn out from the community.”
Rocco said he along with Community Board 10 District manager Ken Kearns spoke during the ceremony, to thank everyone who has been instrumental in helping to get the association on its feet.
“I spoke first and tried to convey to everyone what our objectives are,” he said. “I told them we all need to be on the same playing field, we need to set an agenda, and work to reach our goal which is to clean up the area and get it back on track. We need to get our economy jumping and clean up our neighborhood.”
The association also announced, during the grand opening, that Coca Cola will be coming on board as one of the association’s sponsors.
“Everyone was really impressed with the space and how much support we have and how much progress we made,” Rocco said. “I am so happy this is finally coming to a head, and I am getting a lot of support from people. People will randomly stop me when I am out and tell me how great they think it is that we are all doing this.”
Senator Jeff Klein said he was happy to see a civic association formed to serve the community in Westchester Square.
“I’m glad to see any Civic group engaged in civic activity to launch out of the Weschester Square area,” Senator Klein said. “I look forward to working with this group, the Merchant Association, and my colleagues in government including Council member Vacca, Assembly members Benedetto and Rivera, and Senator Diaz to make sure the area continues to be properly served.”
Rocco said he is currently working on planting flowers around the trees on St. Raymond’s Avenue and also putting together a Barbecue and clean up around St. Peter’s Church.
“There seems to be a big problem with prostitution and drug use around that area, so we are working with the 45 precinct to try and clean that up,” he said.
The clean up will take place in the next couple of weeks, once a date is determined.
