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Read the press release here.

Flooded Prospect Park Path and School Air Conditioning Win Taxpayer Funding

 The path near Prospect Park's Dongan Oak Monument will get better drainage with funding received through City Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budgeting program.
The path near Prospect Park's Dongan Oak Monument will get better drainage with funding received through City Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budgeting program.
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Jim Henderson/Wikimedia Commons

PARK SLOPE — A flooded Prospect Park path will get better drainage and an overheated school cafeteria will get cooled down thanks to a citizen-led budgeting program.

New air conditioning for P.S. 124 and upgrades for the path near Prospect Park's Dongan Oak Monument were among the winning projects in this year's round of participatory budgeting for City Councilman Brad Lander's 39th District, the councilman announced this week.

Participatory budgeting lets voters decide how to spend Lander's $1.5 million in discretionary funds on neighborhood improvements.

Voters chose seven projects that will cost a total of $1,395,000.

An eighth project to install a Knuffle Bunny statue and "storytelling garden" outside the Park Slope public library would bring the total to $1,645,000, but Lander is “hopeful that he'll be able to find the funds" for the library project, he said in blog post announcing the winners.

This year's winning projects and funding amounts are:

► P.S. 146/M.S. 448 will renovate a room to use as a gym ($200,000).

► P.S. 124 will get air conditioning in its overheated basement cafeteria ($200,000).

► P.S. 179's auditorium will be renovated ($230,000).

► Greenery such as bioswales will be installed on Union Street between Bond Street and Fourth Avenue ($150,000.)

► Four intersections on Hicks Street will get safety upgrades ($300,000).

► The arts nonprofits Groundswell, Reelworks and Rooftop Films will get new computers and other technology improvements ($90,000).

► The path near Prospect Park's Dongan Oak Monument will get better drainage to lessen flooding ($200,000).