By Jeremy Walsh
Changes are coming to the Juniper Park Civic Association as the group said goodbye to the clergyman who long ago established a partnership with the club and to the park’s tree specialist.
Monsignor Nicholas Sivillo, 71, is retiring after more than 20 years with Our Lady of Hope, where nearly all Juniper Civic meetings are held. The civic presented him with a lifetime achievement award at its meeting last Thursday.
“The monsignor is more responsible than nearly anyone else for making the Juniper Park Civic one of the largest civic organizations in the state,” Juniper Park Civic President Robert Holden said.
Sivillo was assigned to Our Lady of Hope in 1988. The Brooklyn-born clergyman soon agreed to host one of the Juniper Park Civic’s meetings in the parochial school’s gymnasium. Soon after that, Holden said, Sivillo let the civic hold all its meetings there and even occasionally weighed in on quality-of-life issues.
“He became a friend, somebody you could go to with any problem,” Holden said.
Sivillo, who will retire to a residence at nearby St. Margaret’s, said the first thing he noticed about the neighborhood was its abundance of trees. The second thing was the resolve of the population.
“I never so solidified a group of people with such a unified idea of how life should be lived,” he said. “When you settle in and something’s good, you want to be there for a while.”
The monsignor also got a send-off from City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), who presented him with a proclamation honoring his service.
“He’s kept us strong,” she said. “It’s good to know he’ll still be close by.”
The Juniper Park Civic also bade farewell to Jeffrey Karl, the city Parks Department arborist responsible for monitoring the foliage at Juniper Valley Park. Holden presented Karl with a community service award on behalf of the club and praised him for his efforts coordinating the recent planting of 300 new trees at the park.
“We wouldn’t have them without Jeffrey,” he said.
Karl, 25, is accepting a job with the U.S. Forest Service fighting wildfires in California’s Inyo National Forest.
“I’ll hopefully keep having adventures for the rest of my life,” he said, noting his post will be an hour’s drive away from the nearest grocery store.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
