An interview with Madelyn Wils By Carl Glassman Madelyn Wils is gone from Community Board 1, but her steely determination to complete unfinished business remains. In an interview with the Trib on the morning after her farewell appearance before the board last month, she said she would have “preferred” to stay on to help iron out plans for a k-8 school on Beekman Street and a CB1 initiative to ban high-rise development in northern Tribeca. And she would have liked to be there for the disbursement of the remaining Sept. 11 federal block grant funds for Lower Manhattan. But then again, she said with characteristic self-certainty, “Despite the fact that I am not on the board I will make sure that those things happen.” It helps that Wils remains on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) as the sole representative of Downtown’s residential community. And, as she is quick to point out, she still knows people in high places. “I have set up the northern Tribeca [rezoning] and worked closely with [City Planning Commission Chairwoman] Amanda Burden on that. And Shelly [State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver] wants me to continue working on the k-8 school.” Wils does not speak publicly about her removal from the board by Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields. Asked to respond to Fields’ contention that her time spent on other boards “may adversely impact” on her ability to participate as a CB1 member, the former chairwoman laughed. “I don’t believe anyone ever complained that I didn’t put enough time into it,” she said. “But if that’s her opinion, that’s her opinion.” Still, Wils had planned to step down from the board next year at the end of her term as chairwoman. She acknowledged the difficulty of handling her many commitments, including her position as president and CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute. “I felt it would be time to hand over the reigns to somebody else, and because of all my other obligations. I want to put more time into my job and I want to put in more time with my little one before he grows up too far.” The mother of three sons, Wils recalled the reaction of her youngest, 11-year-old Sean, when he heard she was leaving the board. “Now you get to spend more time with me,” he told her. “I have had many, many, many  tense times in my family because of the community board,” Wils said. “And I probably wasn’t as good of a parent as I should have been. But I was as good of a parent as I could have been.” In her speech to CB1, Wils thanked her husband of 21 years, Steven, for his support. Steven Wils is the third-generation owner of Harry Wils and Co., which was the last butter and eggs business in Tribeca, operating on the ground floor of the family’s building on Duane Street, before moving to New Jersey in 1998. Looking back, Wils said she is proudest of bringing together the business and residential communities after Sept. 11. She said she also takes pride in the rezoning of southern Tribeca and the South Street Seaport district and the birth of Millennium High School. In the coming months, Wils said, she will not, even privately, pick a favorite in the race for board chair. And she will attend meetings only when there are issues, especially concerning the LMDC, “that need some guidance.” While some board members talked of Wils’ departure last month in almost eulogistic tones, the ousted chairwoman speaks cheerfully about her future, especially her job at the film institute, which she said she took last year after “very seriously” considering a run for borough president. Now she sounds as enthusiastic about the institute’s new film projects for high school students and Kenyan refugees as she once did about zoning resolutions and development fights. “I’ve got 10 projects going,” she said brightly.