February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The first vote prompted a political storm with local city council member Eric Gioia moving to bypass the board by placing a bill supporting the name change before the full New York City Council.
That bill will continue to proceed through the committee stage on its way to a full council vote later in the year. But its prospects of a happier ultimate success will have been boosted by the Community Board’s latest vote.
The board now even plans to go a step further. It wants to dedicate a memorial plaque to Carvill in Woodside.
The idea to rename a Woodside street after Carvill was first proposed by the Emerald Isle Immigration Center.
Carvill, who lived in New Jersey, was killed June 4 of last year in Baghdad while serving as a sergeant in the New Jersey Army National Guard. He had devoted many hours of his spare time to the center on a voluntary basis.
The center’s initial request that Carvill’s name be added to an existing street designation was turned aside by the community board’s Land Use Committee.
That refusal was later backed by the full board, a decision that prompted a sharp rebuke from Emerald Isle chairman Brian O’Dwyer and in turn led to Gioia’s City Council bill.
The dual naming proposal was rejected by a whisker, 12-11, with four abstentions, when the Community Board convened for its December meeting. But board members stated at the time that the board was prepared to revisit the proposal.
In reply to criticism from O’Dwyer and Gioia, members said that the proposal was not properly presented to the board and that many of its members did not know much or anything about Frank Carvill and his life’s work.
At last week’s meeting, however, board members heard a full recounting of Carvill’s life from Siobhan Dennehy, executive director of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center. And what they heard they liked. The vote in favor was 24-4 with four abstentions.
Board chairman Joe Conley said that the negative votes and abstentions came primarily from members who were angry at the way the issue had been played out in the press.
“Honoring Frank Carvill was a no-brainer,” said Conley, an army veteran who served during the Vietnam era. “But many board members did not know who Frank was. It had not been properly explained to them.
“Siobhan Dennehy came to last week’s meeting and spoke to the board about Frank and that had a great impact.”
Conley said that board members were still aggrieved at what they felt was “grandstanding” on the issue by some individuals. But the board now wanted to see Carvill’s name attached to the sign already indicating the junction of 59th Street and Woodside Avenue. Beyond that the board wanted to erect a plaque that would commemorate Frank Carvill’s life.
“In 10 years people who see the street sign will be asking who Frank Carvill was,” Conley said. “We want to explain Frank’s life and work with a plaque.”
The board hoped that the plaque would be erected close by the renamed street corner in the Woodside Veterans Memorial Triangle.
Dennehy, meanwhile, said she was “thrilled and delighted” by the Community Board’s decision.
“This will be a fitting tribute to Frank and we’re looking forward to the unveiling ceremony in a few months time,” she said.
Once renamed, 59th Street at Woodside Avenue will also become known as “Frank Carvill Way.”
In a statement, Council Member Gioia commended the Community Board for reconsidering the renaming issue.
“I congratulate them for overturning their earlier vote. This is the very least that we can do for Frank, who dedicated his life to helping thousands of Irish Americans, new Americans, and New Yorkers,” Gioia said.
Gioia said he expected public hearings and a vote on the street renaming this spring.
Carvill, who was 51 at the time of his death, had worked as the treasurer for the Emerald Isle Center on a volunteer basis.
His death in Baghdad was a cruelly ironic end for a man who had worked out of uniform as a paralegal for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and had survived the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
Carvill only avoided the 2001 attack because he was driving to a meeting in Brooklyn. He turned around and drove back to help in the rescue effort.
Carvill had been a member of the New Jersey Guard for 20 years, but he had devoted himself to what friends and admirers agreed was an extraordinary level of commitment to a variety of Irish causes in the tri-state area.
Among these, he had dedicated himself to the quest for peace in Northern Ireland, and the securing of visas for many thousands of young Irish immigrants.