SummerStage Dance 2010, will be in St. Mary’ Park this weekend. Rennie Harris RHAW and Le Soul Afrique with Special Guest Akim Funk Buddha will perform on Friday, June 25, at 7 p.m. Abakua Afro-Latin Dance Company and Areytos Performance Works will be on stage on Saturday at 7.

One of the culprits in a scandal that has cast a shadow on Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo and City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo is headed to a federal pen for the next 10 months. Margarita Villegas pleaded guilty to embezzling $50,000 from a non-profit housing corporation that manages low income apartments. Next up, Richard Izqierdo Arroyo, who admitted stealing $115,000, some of which prosecutors say went to the assemblywoman and councilwoman, his grandmother and aunt, respectively.

Friends of Brook Park has a plan to create oyster and mussel beds in the Bronx Kill, which separates Mott Haven from Randall’s Island. The organization is awaiting word from the feds about a $50,000 grant for its proposal to clean up the polluted water nature’s way.

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin won’t challenge Congressman Jose Serrano this year, but won’t rule out a run in 2012, when new district lines are drawn. Benjamin is giving up his seat in the State Legislature.

A refugee from Sierra Leone, who attended International Community High School in Mott Haven was stabbed to death in Washington Heights Sunday. Police said 18-year-old Mohamed Jalloh, who lived in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, was seen arguing with a group of men in a McDonald’s.

Mott Haven has a new landmark, the seven-story Haffen building in the Hub. The Landmarks Preservation Commission also began considering creating a Grand Concourse Historic District stretching from 153rd to 167th Street.

Thirty-three-year-old Tamar Brown was killed on Courtlandt Avenue near the Melrose Jackson Houses Sunday. Police said he had been shot several times.

A soldier who grew up in Mott Haven was murdered on an Army base in Georgia. Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado, 47, a father of three was shot several times. Police have not identified the shooter, who turned himself in and is in custody.

Thieves broke in to St. Rita’s Shrine Church in Mott Haven and stole chalices and communion plates, some jewel-encrusted.

The National Museum of the American Latino was first proposed by Democratic Congressman Xavier Becerra of California in 2003, with the goal of educating the public about Latinos’ artistic, cultural and historical contributions nationally.

After five years of fine tuning, Congress passed and the president signed a bill supported by both parties in 2008, and a federal study commission was formed. The commission is expected to submit a report to Congress and the White House in two years.

But Díaz expressed his displeasure with the fact that not one of the 23 appointees to the federal commission is a New Yorker.

In a letter to Congressman José Serrano, Díaz argued that “the National Museum of the American Latino has no representation from the state that has over one million Puerto Ricans and Latinos,” calling the oversight “reprehensible.”

Díaz, who chairs the State Senate’s Puerto Rican and Latino Caucus, added that “The state of Florida has six members, Nevada has four, California has three, Texas has two and we get nada.”

The members of the commission were chosen for their “qualifications in museum administration, expertise in fundraising, experience in public service, and demonstrated commitment to the research, study or promotion of American Latino life, art, history, or culture,” according to the museum’s website.

Díaz contends the composition of the commission should be restructured to allow New York more influence.

“Salsa and Cuban Jazz came out of New York,” Serrano’s letter states, naming the Bronx’s Pregones Theater among numerous New York cultural organizations with a Hispanic flavor.

Of the 23 members of the commission, the White House selected 11, while Congress chose 12.

Díaz cited the contributions of New York’s Latinos, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez as examples of the oversight.

“On behalf of a community that yet does not get the respect that they deserve, we ask for your help due to your commitment to our community and the arts,” Senator Díaz concluded in his letter to Serrano.

“It is something that should be dealt with,” agreed Serrano in a phone conversation with The Hunts Point Express, noting that he will soon be in contact with Congressman Becerra to discuss what can be done to add a New Yorker to the federal commission.

A number of Mott Haven community leaders are complaining that they have been left out of planning the South Bronx Greenway’s future.

At stake, they argue, is not only recreation but jobs.

“There’s a whole spectrum of economic development opportunities here, and we want to make sure this is as inclusive as it needs to be,” Arline Parks, the chair of Community Board 1’s economic development committee, said at a recent committee meeting.

A team of consultants is working with Hunts Point community groups to plan how businesses and residents can get the most out of the proposed greenway. They are developing a business plan for a new, home-grown non-profit organization that would manage the greenway, putting more effort into upkeep than city agencies would be expected to.

“It’s a difference of do you want it kept clean, or kept clean and also planted every year,” said Frank Randazzo, director of the Bronx Empowerment Zone, an arm of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation that provided $150,000 to pay the consultants.

According to Daniel Hernandez, one of those consultants, the new non-profit will most likely resemble Solar 1, the environmental education group that manages Stuyvesant Cove Park on the East River in Manhattan.

The management organization would hire other groups to run programs, organize commerce and maintain the greenway. Local residents would have priority in filling these contracts.

“There’s a lot of momentum and investment in the greenway, and implementation of this is critical,” Hernandez said. “People will see that.”

The completed plan will be presented to a steering committee assembled by Paul Lipson, Rep. Jose Serrano’s chief of staff. The committee, which includes representatives of the New York and Bronx Overall economic development corporations and several non-profits, will be in charge of turning the plan into a reality.

“It seemed to me it was more Hunts Point than Mott Haven centered,” said Parks, after a presentation at Board 1’s office.

“They talked about vendors, concerts and other activities. You’d want to make sure our community members could be vendors, and host activities, and participate in the economic development opportunities. You’d want to make sure it’s going to represent Mott Haven and Hunts Point,” she said.

Mott Haven has almost twice as many residents as Hunts Point, but Parks said Hunts Point has gained an advantage because of its activist organizations. “Mott Haven doesn’t have the kinds of organizations that Hunts Pont has,” she said. “Hunts Point has been ahead of the curve in that regard.”

Harry Bubbins, the director of Friends of Brook Park, said he was glad work was being done on the greenway.

“We were leading bike tours to promote the idea 10 years ago, so we’re very pleased to see some progress on this project,” he said.

But Bubbins was disappointed that he hadn’t heard anything about plans for a new organization to run the greenway. And he was worried that a planning process that doesn’t involve the whole community might seem efficient in the short-term, but ultimately fall short of its goals. “There’s a consolidation within Hunts Point groups at the expense of larger community building,” he said.

The Port Morris Industrial Business Zone promotes economic development in the area immediately surrounding a portion of the proposed greenway. Stephane Hyacinthe, who runs the program, said he thinks the greenway sounds like a wonderful idea, but no one has contacted him about the plan.

“It’s an initiative I’d be more than willing to work on and give my expertise and knowledge,” he said, “but I don’t know who’s spearheading the project.”

Maryann Hedaa, who heads the Hunts Point Alliance for Children and is a member of the steering committee, said the perception that Mott Haven and Port Morris groups were being left out of the planning for the management of the greenway was probably correct.

But, she added, “I don’t think the right people from Hunts Point are on the committee either.”

She is less worried about the geographic makeup of the committee than she is about its collective expertise.

“The trouble is there’s no real business leadership involved,” she said. “It could be a whole lot of money going down the drain if you don’t get the right people managing it. I’m worried the people on that committee will maintain the status quo, and the status quo in the South Bronx isn’t sustainable.”

In addition to the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, the steering committee includes representatives from The Point CDC, Rocking the Boat and Sustainable South Bronx.

Randazzo also said Mott Haven and Port Morris may have been overlooked. While much of the work is already done, he said there is still time for additional input on how the greenway should be managed.

“Is there room for another opinion? I would say sure. Is it going to have the same effect as if you’d been there since day one? Probably not,” he said. “Sometimes it’s tough to remember everybody.”