City triples cost for Marine Park senior center

The community of Marine Park, Brooklyn wanted a simple senior center. Instead they’ve only received promises of a costly, environmentally efficient building that have gone unfulfilled. The New York Daily News reported that the center, originally slated to Open On Fillmore Avenue by 2009 for $5.5 million has ballooned into a $16 million project that won’t be completed until at least the winter.

“We’re a blue-collar community,” said former Marine Park Civic Association board member John Manzola. “When we hear astronomical numbers on this project for what we’re getting — two bathrooms and a grass roof — we get angry.”

The building features a grassy roof and a geothermal energy system to pump water through the building for heating and cooling. Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey promised the center would open this winter.

But a construction worker surveyed by the Daily News said there was still “a lot” of work needed to be done. [NYDN] — Adam Fusfeld