The Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) reconfirmed a $4 million commitment to develop Southpoint Park in its meeting Thursday morning.

RIOC Vice President Catherine Johnson said that $2.8 million of a matching $4 million commitment from New York State has been received. Johnson and City Councilmember Jessica Lappin confirmed that the City budget also includes $4 million for the park in 2007.

Lappin also expressed concern that RIOC had issued a Request for Initial Proposals (RFIP) offering the northern end of Southpoint for development. In a presentation, RIOC’s real-estate consultant, Paul Mas, confirmed that at least one proposal has been received for the site. But residents who had come to the Board meeting to hear what proposals had been made for the five properties RIOC is offering were disappointed: Mas gave no details in RIOC’s open public meeting; instead, the Board went into a closed executive session to hear his more detailed report.

The Board has scheduled a public meeting for Thursday, February 16, for Mas to present the fruits of the RFIP process to residents. The meeting will take place from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Good Shepherd Community Center.

Lappin, who was introduced at the meeting as the new Councilmember representing the Island, gave the Board a prepared statement saying she is "deeply concerned by the prospect that RIOC would develop the northern portion of Southpoint as anything other than parkland... I am opposed to the Board’s efforts to develop the northern portion separately from the park."

Mas indicated that some 21 proposals were received from 14 bidders who satisfied the RFIP’s requirements for an expression of interest. He indicated that those for the open spaces — presumably the Southpoint Park site and a site at the northeastern end of Coler Hospital, were "predominantly residential, as you might expect." The other offerings were a site at the Tram station, RIOC’s interest in Motorgate, and the Island’s retail spaces, particularly those at the ground level in the "WIRE" buildings (Westview, Island House, Rivercross, Eastwood).

In other activity at its meeting, the RIOC Board also:

• Approved a staff restructuring at RIOC, adding a controller, three legal staffers, and a community relations position. With elimination of some positions, the cost is put at $45,000 a year.
   

• Approved a relationship with the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs under which the old trolley kiosk (now on Southtown property near the Tram station) will be positioned on the grassy slope near the Tram and used as a welcome center for Island visitors, and managed by the Historical Society.
   

• Approved a contract to replace the backup wheelchair elevator at the Manhattan-side Tram station.
   

• Approved a three-year lease of storefront space in the Rivercross building for an MTA contractor, Gottlieb Skanska, which will work on the escalators at the Island subway station, but only after extracting a promise that Main Street parking rules will be observed by the contractors and visitors to the office.
   

• Instead of approving an extension of the Eastwood ground lease, as anticipated, the Board voted to authorize continued negotiations.
   

• In addition, President Herb Berman recognized extraordinary services by several Public Safety Officers