Fishermen's Group Worries About Meeting Spot

The Bayside Anglers spend a lot of time on the water, but for a change, the school they're concerned with isn't of the marine variety.

For 16 years, the group has met after hours at . The building stays open until 8p.m. under the auspices of the Beacon School, but if it were to close, they're afraid their group could be .

"We’re attached to the beacon, because we’ve been meeting there for 16 years, it’s ideal, we can can have an uninterrupted meeting without noise," said the group's president, Peter Pabon.

The Anglers club is among the hundreds of other local residents who rely on the program site.

Approximately 300 middle and 74 elementary school students from the area use the program for tutoring and enrichment, according to District 26 Official Kim D'Angelo.

The Dept. of Youth and Community Development plans to close the Beacon after-school program and free camp to help close a funding shortfall. The program costs about $334,000 to run each year, according the office of Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone.

Pabon says they used to have monthly meetings at the Beacon site at 7:30p.m. Recently they've had to move the time up to 7p.m., because the Beacon itself has cut its hours to close at 8p.m.

"I know that the has a …but there’s outside noise," said Pabon, who worries that the noise would be distract them from "talking fishing."