As U.S. assistance to Latin America dwindles, Rep. Eliot Engel has created an innovative plan to keep providing aid to our developing southern neighbors. His 10-year, $2.5 billion plan focuses on a non-traditional approach by encouraging financial commitments from the private sector and recipient nations.

A City Council bill to provide assistance for New Yorkers seeking public benefits was introduced by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum last week. Councilman Joel Rivera (District 15) and David Pedulla from NYU Brennan Center showed up in support of the initiative.

The “heat season” begins this week and city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan wants to remind residential building owners of their legal responsibility to provide hot water year-round and 24-hour heat for tenants.

A handful of Bronxites under the age of 40 were picked by the monthly paper City Hall as “Rising Stars” in New York City politics.

Congressman Eliot Engel recently test drove the Ford HySeries Edge, the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with plug-in capability, in downtown Washington.

• Community Board 7 will meet on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Scott Tower community room, 3400 Paul Ave. For more information, call the Board office at (718) 933-5650.• Croton Facility Monitoring Committee will meet on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. Location was not available at press time. For location or more information, call the DEP outreach office at (718) 231-8470.• Community Education Council 10 will meet on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 6:15 p.m. Location was not available at press time. For location or more information, call (718) 741-5836.• 52nd Precinct Community Council will meet Thursday, Oct. 18 at 7:00

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Carrying signs and chanting slogans of victory, northwest Bronx community members marched down Bainbridge Avenue to support the building of a youth center in the vacant Fordham library.

“My wife says I have a fault of believing in government,” Assemblyman Michael Benjamin told us the other day when we asked what his thoughts on the filtration plant were these days. He was referring to the promises, most now broken, made to him and his colleagues by city officials when seeking the Assembly’s support for building the plant in Van Cortlandt Park. Kennedy Benjamin might have missed her calling. Her critical eye would have helped save city taxpayers from footing the bill for what is increasingly being considered a public disaster.

I am writing this letter in the hopes of refocusing the school community and district representatives’ attention to the Bronx New School/PS 51’s lack of a proper playground.