Capt. Terry O’Toole urges Maspeth residents to call 911 if they see anyone suspicious, to help fight a rash of nine recent burglaries in the area. Forum Newsgroup photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

Police are combating a spike of at least nine burglaries in April within a few blocks of each other in Maspeth.

The burst of crimes happened in the area of Maspeth surrounded by the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, Long Island Expressway and Queens Boulevard.

Eight of the nine were concentrated between 51st and 47th avenues and between 61st and 66th streets.

Police say a suspect or group of suspects who knows the area is burgling houses, mostly in the afternoon.

Officers have blanketed the area, but were not been able to catch or identify a suspect despite a foot pursuit with one perpetrator.

Capt. Terry O’Toole, the 108th Precinct’s executive officer, said a police car was stationed at 50th Avenue and 65th Street as a burglary happened there at 3 p.m. one afternoon.

The occupant of the house was upstairs when she heard someone break into her home. She called a relative instead of 911, O’Toole said, delaying any chance of catching the perpetrator.

“We have deployed our officers all over the place to try to catch these guys,” O’Toole said. “What happens? The guys actually jumped over the fence, landed on the hood of the police car, got up and ran away.”

The officer and sergeant in the car chased the man through alleyways until he disappeared into an abandoned house.

“We did everything we were supposed to do and we couldn’t catch him,” O’Toole said.

O’Toole and the precinct brought in boroughwide taskforces and extra cops to blanket the area in an attempt to stop the pattern.

“We went full out with this,” O’Toole said. “I had bloodhounds come down from the Bronx.”

The evening of the burglary at 50th Avenue and 65th Street, police used that bloodhound to try to hunt down the suspect after he disappeared. Instead of finding him, they found he’d been all over the backyards and driveways of nearby houses.

“They tracked through all the backyards through all the houses in the entire neighborhood. That dog tracked for about four blocks,” O’Toole said. “That guy was all over the place. He was all over the place, and nobody reported him.”

As O’Toole told the story at the meeting of the civic group Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together (COMET), he begged attendees to call 911 if they see anything suspicious.

He said the area is now crawling with officers too, with plainclothes deployments and help from the taskforce.

“And the scary thing is, all the suckers running around that we don’t know and nobody is calling 911 to report them as being suspicious. That’s what annoys me,” said COMET President Roe Daraio. “We have got to wake up here because they’re going to break into a house someday and somebody is going to be home.”

Police did recover stolen property during the chase, O’Toole said, meaning they now have fingerprints and DNA for at least one suspect.

Witnesses have given differing accounts, saying it’s either one perpetrator or three, but at least one should be known to police soon.

“With the fingerprints and the DNA we hope that we’ll have an identification in the next couple of weeks,” O’Toole said. “Hopefully we have this burglar got.”

By Jeremiah Dobruck

Beginning this July, an outdoor green market will be coming to Forest Hills. Community Board 6 (CB 6) voted to approve the market at its meeting on Wednesday, May 9.

According to Frank Gulluscio, district manager of CB 6, the green market will be on Queens Boulevard near the Forest Hills post office and the Forest Hills Jewish Center.

It will run on Sundays starting on July 8 and continuing through Nov. 18. Each Sunday, the market will open at 8 a.m. and close at 3 p.m.

Gulluscio said that the green market has gotten a huge response from the community and they fielded more than 100 phone calls before they were set to vote on the green market’s approval the day of the meeting.

He added that the market coming to Forest Hills will be a great asset to the neighborhood.

“When the community comes out as strong as they did, it’s a good thing,” Gulluscio said.

Margaret Hoffman, who works in the Greenmarket department of Grow NYC, a non-profit organization that aims to improve New York City’s quality of life through environmental programs, said that while they don’t have a full lineup of who exactly will be at the market, it will feature types of foods such as vegetables, fruits and baked goods.

Hoffman also said that all the foods in the market will come from family-run farms and will have been grown in the New York region.

There was also a petition for the green market that allowed people to show their support.

The petition has been signed by almost 500 people and is available on change.org. When you log onto the site, you can find it by typing “Forest Hills” in the search box.

Cathy Chambers, who is also from Grow NYC, was a big proponent of bringing the Greenmarket to Forest Hills. She attended the board meeting to show off the petition and urge the community board to approve the market for that site.
This was not the first time they have tried to bring a Greenmarket to the Forest Hills area.

According to Gulluscio, the organization came to the board a couple of years ago with an informal proposal for the Greenmarket. He said that they originally wanted to have it where restaurant row is on 71st Street near Austin Street. Gulluscio said the board decided that the location they picked wasn’t a good area for the market and to come back with a new proposal when they were ready.

Hoffman said that putting the green market in Forest Hills will give people in that area an opportunity to buy locally-produced food that they may not have had a chance to before. She added that residents have been very vocal in their support for the green market.

By Luis Gronda

A letter sent home from the school to parents last week explained that current Principal Mrs. Kathleen Bollinger would not be returning for the new school year.

Upon learning of her decision, Msgr. LoPinto made arrangements to compile resumes for the principal’s position. A search committee was appointed to review resumes and conduct interviews resulting in an offer for Mrs. Christine Zerillo, who starts in September.

She has a Doctorate of Education from Hofstra and has been principal of the Wheeler Avenue School in Valley Stream for the last nine years.

Msgr. LoPinto expressed confidence in Zerillo’s extensive background in the field of education and the strong leadership qualities she has in team-building among faculty, students and parents.

Forum Newsgroup Photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

A week after its photo appeared in The Forum, this home at 101-16 157th Ave. in Howard Beach has a significantly different appearance. Neighbors had complained about an unkempt yard, a broken down car in the driveway and general disrepair. The owner previously told next door neighbors, however, that he would be back soon to clean up the property, which his late mother had lived in. It looks like he made good on his promise. On March 10, the car had disappeared from the driveway, the lawn was mowed and the unkempt bushes were transformed into a manicured hedge.

A flower memorial and wake announcement marks the Liberty Avenue corner where Rohan Singh was killed by a hit-and-run-driver on Sunday morning. Forum Newsgroup photo by Patricia Adams.

“I heard the speed coming from behind me.” That’s how eyewitness Adam Pedroza described the seconds before a 45-year-old woman was struck and killed as she stepped off the sidewalk on Thursday evening.

Estella Peralta had just stepped off the curb onto Rockaway Boulevard, according to Pedroza. “It was less than three seconds before she was up in the air,” he said.
The woman was about to cross Rockaway Boulevard from the corner of Nissan of Queens over to P.C. Richards when an unidentified female driving a Mini Cooper ran the red light and struck her, according to Pedroza and other witnesses at the scene.

“Never. I will never forget what happened in the next few seconds,” Pedroza said

“Not for my entire life.” The Howard Beach resident had been standing outside his car at Dunkin Donuts at the busy intersection of Rockaway and Woodhaven boulevards when he heard something from behind him. “I can’t really describe it better than to say I heard the speed of the car coming.” He turned his head and followed the car through the red light, turning his head to have the woman attempting to cross come into view. “I know it happened in what was like a split second but it seemed to go almost like slow motion.’”

At the time of impact, according to the witnesses, Peralta was thrown into the air. “She landed on the hood of the car and was sent flying down the street,” one man at the scene said. “She got hit twice.” The woman landed about 25 feet from the original impact, just in front of the car, which then came to a stop.

“I come here a few times a week with my wife and family, “ Pedroza said, “and I see people blowing this light all the time. It will happen again. I am not surprised that

Blood runs in the street near discarded emergency equipment used by EMS, who desperately tried to treat Estella Peralta. The 45-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. Forum Newsgroup photo by Patricia Adams

this woman got killed like this.”

Standing in the street near where the Mini Cooper was parked, he went on to say how sad it was that someone’s life could be brought to an end because of another person’s rushing. “This poor lady never had a chance.”

The driver was not charged in the incident and police sources said that she had not been drinking.

Just a little more than 48 hours later, on nearby 108th Street and Liberty Avenue, a man in his 40’s was killed as he crossed Liberty Avenue on his way to a neighborhood grocery store. Rohan Singh, 47, had been having a few drinks in a neighborhood bar when he left to go across the street to the deli at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Witnesses say that Singh crossed against the light and met with a speeding driver who hit him and never stopped. Video footage from stores along the avenue were used as part of the investigation. It shows Singh as he crossed, and then the speeding car crashing into him and throwing him approximately 50 feet into a pole. He was dead at the scene.

A flower memorial was placed on the pole at the corner where the accident took place. “He was a nice guy,” said Narine, the owner of a Laundromat on the block where it happened. “I knew him for some years. Sometimes he would just bring me coffee—I didn’t even ask for it but he knew I opened early and he would just bring it for me.”

Rohan Singh—The 47-year-old construction worker was mowed down by a hit and run driver on his way to a grocery store early Sunday morning. Forum Newsgroup photo by Patricia Adams.

Family members say they want justice for Singh’s senseless death. The father of two came from Guyana and worked in construction to send money back home to his wife and kids.

According to police sources, the driver of a dark car, possibly a Nissan, is being sought in the fatal hit-and-run. Identification from the cameras has been somewhat impeded by the fact that there is distortion in the pictures when cars are traveling at high rates of speed. One source said the pictures usually are rendered unusable when speeds reach 70 miles per hour and up.

Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the 106th Precinct detectives at 718-845-2660.

Community Affairs Officer Kenny Zorn of the 106th Precinct says that the precinct has stepped up enforcement in all accident prone locations, trying to discourage speeding. “People may start getting upset when they get stopped in these high-risk zones, but we’re going to do everything we can to stop this driving behavior that is costing lives,” Zorn said. He went on to caution drivers operating without a license that they will undoubtedly be arrested on the spot if their license is not in order.

An additional pedestrian fatality occurred within 15 minutes of Singh being struck in Sunnyside where a 24-year-old man was killed by a drunken driver on the corner of Greenpoint Avenue and 46th Street. Witnesses said the man was trying to hail a cab when he was struck. The driver was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and driving while under the influence.

By Patricia Adams

Police remove the badly burned body of an unidentified man from Forest Park on Saturday. The incident is still under investigation. Forum Newsgroup photo by Robert Stridiron.

Firefighters discovered the badly burned body of a man when they responded to a brush fire in Forest Park early on Saturday morning.

Police are now investigating the death and an autopsy is being performed to determine how the man died and why the body was involved in the grisly incident.

Minutes before 6 a.m., police and fire officials responded to the small area of brush that was aflame a few dozen feet into the park near the corner of Park Lane South and 86th Street.

Firefighters found apile of garbage burning amidst the brush and quickly extinguished it.

When it was out, they found a badly charred body under the rubbish, a fire department spokesman said.

As soon as that happened, the matter was handed over to police, who began an investigation.

They had bagged and removed the unidentified body by that afternoon.

The medical examiner is working to determine the cause of death—be it from the fire or something else, and the body still has not been identified.

It’s unclear if the fire was set or not. The cause, too, is under investigation.

By Jeremiah Dobruck

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott answered questions in Ozone Park during the town hall meeting at M.S. 137 hosted by Community Education Council 27. Many of the questions focused on special education reform. Forum Newsgroup photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott defended the turnaround program and special education reform at a town hall meeting in Ozone Park Tuesday night.

Community Education Council 27 hosted the event to give parents and teachers a chance to ask face-to-face questions of the Department of Education’s highest official, and they took their chance.

Although most of the meeting was civil and respectful, emotions peeked out when parents started asking about a citywide reform of the special education system.
The reform lets special education students attend their locally zoned schools instead of having to travel to schools built with programs for them.

“The bottom line goal we’re trying to achieve is equity in access,” Walcott told the audience. He added that he would personally like to change any school that has a 0 percent special education population.

“I find that unacceptable,” he said.

But concerned parents jumped on that statement. They asked if this would crowd their local schools any more or force schools with gifted and accelerated programs to take limited spots away from general education students.

An aide for Walcott said the criteria for entering specialized schools or programs wouldn’t change at all—they would just have to consider special education students the same way they consider any students.

She added that the reform wouldn’t affect seats for the general education population at all.

“You’re lying,” one man shouted in response before standing up and walking out of the room. “It’s a zero sum game.”

The Chancellor and a representative from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) also got a little snippy with each other when the turnaround program came up.
Turnaround is the initiative to close 24 schools—including seven in Queens—and reopen them, making all the teachers reapply for their jobs.

Dermot Smyth, a Queens representative for the UFT, strode to the front of the room to talk about the plan.

Smyth outlined the strong community opposition that many teachers, parents, students and politicians voiced about the plan.

“My question is to the chancellor, if the mayor has ignored the parents’ wishes for the last 11 years, what is going to change so that our children will no longer become the collateral damage in this effort?” he said.

“I know this is a UFT chapter meeting,” Walcott sarcastically shot back as some audience members applauded. “I don’t accept the point that we’re not listening to parents. We talk to parents all the time.”

Earlier he answered a parent’s question on the same topic by saying they had evaluated the turnaround schools by peer comparisons and found them lacking.

“Lots of times, and this is not a knock on individuals, schools need to be changed,” he said.

He did find some support on that note. One of the last comments from the audience was a parent from Richmond Hill High School.

He thanked Walcott for the turnaround plan, saying the new principal that’s been installed is already reaching out to the community.

By Jeremiah Dobruck

j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com

Touch-up and maintenance work is in full swing at Forest Park Carousel to get it ready for its Memorial Day weekend opening. Forum Newsgroup Photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

Renovations are underway at the Forest Park Carousel for its opening at the end of the month, and the company formed just last month to run the attraction says it will be $3 or less per ride when the horses start running.

Last week, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation announced they selected NY Carousel Entertainment as the new operator.

The company, which hadn’t officially existed before March, was created by a group of amusement industry lovers with the purpose of taking on these two carousels, a spokesperson for the group said.

“We are a group of people who love NYC, who care deeply about the history of the amusement industry and who cherish the uniqueness and understand the special place these magical rides hold in the hearts of New Yorkers,” said Ara Chekmayan, who was hired as the group’s spokesman.

At the Forest Park site through this week, contractors were sanding floors, repairing roll-down metal gates, sprucing up fencing, adding fresh coats of paint, renovating the snack shack and making general repairs.

“Everything that we’ve done so far are all cosmetics,” said Julio Tomala, the contractor at the site.

The city issued NY Carousel Entertainment a work permit while it waits on final contract approval from the Franchise and Concession Review Committee.
Both Forest Park and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park carousels are expected to

Forum Newsgroup Photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

open by Memorial Day weekend.

“The amount of time and the amount of people they have, it’s a pretty big undertaking,” said Chekmayan.

However, Chekmayan did not give details on just how many people are part of NY Carousel Entertainment and what their background is—other than saying, “This is not their first foray into running amusements.”

NY Carousel Entertainment did not participate in the previous rounds of bidding to win a contract to run the carousel.

According to state documents, the company was recently formed on March 20 and is operating out of a Brooklyn office.

Chekmayan did say that the company realizes how significant the carousels are to the neighborhoods and that operating hours for the two will be nailed down in the near future. The plan is to have them open daily.

“We are a group that truly values and appreciates the significance of these carousels and our first concern is the proper maintenance and refurbishment of the carousels for the enjoyment of families throughout the metro area and particularly Queens, N.Y.,” he said.

The city also offered NY Carousel Entertainment and other bidders the chance to install more rides and attractions around Forest Park Carousel, but residents will have to wait and see if that’s in the cards.

Right now, the company isn’t sure about its future plans other than getting the horses galloping and the snack bar next door up and running again.

“During this initial phase our focus at present is to bring these carousels back to life for the enjoyment of the community,” Chekmayan said. At the Forest Park site we want to emphasize the grandeur of the carousel and what an unbelievable opportunity this is for the public to experience for themselves the wonder and magic of an authentic piece of Americana.”

By Jeremiah Dobruck

j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com

When you’re drunk, you make poor decisions because your judgement has been impaired by alcohol. When you’re sober, you’re fully aware of your bad decisions. You’re fully capable of weighing the likely results of those decisions. So if you kill someone as a result of thoughtlessness, why is that more excusable?

Out of those three fatal accidents, only one driver – the one that had been drinking – has been charged with a crime so far. Of the two speeders, one drove away and has yet to be caught, and the other was charged with nothing.

Don’t get us wrong here. Drunk driving is a horrific crime, that should absolutely result in jail time. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only crime one can commit in a car. Speeding is also a crime.

It is, in fact, illegal to speed now. That’s why the speed limit is posted. So drivers know how fast you’re allowed to go, and no faster.

These limits weren’t just made up, either. Studies were done, to determine how fast one could safely go on a given street. The studies consider sight lines, traffic density, the amount of foot traffic, the chance that the sun will glint off of a windshield at sunset. Can these drivers really say they put as much thought into the decision to go faster than that carefully set limit?

Killing someone through speeding isn’t malicious – it’s thoughtless, and that’s almost worse. How skewed have our priorities become, if preserving perfectly healthy lives isn’t one of them?

It’s appalling that people have died – and will continue to die – because other people cannot be bothered to consider how their actions might affect the people around them. In a city with more than 8 million people, we can’t afford that kind of thinking.

A number of studies conducted in different countries, across several different decades all come up with the same results: if you speed, even a little bit, the chances that you’ll kill someone increase exponentially.

For example, if you’re going 20 miles per hour, and you hit someone, there’s a 5 percent chance that person will die. Now let’s say you’re running a little late. You bump it up to 30 miles per hour. Doesn’t seem that bad – you’re probably only going 5 miles over the limit. But if you’re going 30 when you hit that person, the chance of death goes from 5 percent to 40 percent.

If you get hit by a car traveling faster than 50 miles per hour – and don’t tell us you’ve never seen someone do just that on our boulevards – you have a nearly 100 percent chance of death. And if that speeding driver wasn’t drunk, you’ll still be dead, and they won’t be in jail.

Back in February a woman was killed by a vehicle as she tried to carry her shopping across 157th Avenue at its intersection with Cross Bay Boulevard. Her death was largely unnoticed. Most media ignored it, no caution signs went up to alert other pedestrians. The only sign that anything untoward had happened there was a small memorial set up on a nearby telephone pole by her daughter.

It seems as if, in Queens, to die because you were hit by a car is just like dieing of natural causes. No one gets punished, no one is to blame. Just check off ‘natural causes, hit by car in Queens’ on the autopsy report and you’re all set.

If we’ve really reached the stage where it’s not even noteworthy to be run down by a car, something needs to change.

Since when is “Whoops” an acceptable defense? What trials those would be:

Prosecutor: Did you know what you were doing was wrong? That it was dangerous, and could harm or kill yourself or others?

Defendant: Yes.

Judge: Oh, okay then. Stop everything, case dismissed. You can head on home now.

We need laws to protect us. We need the people we’ve elected to look around, see a problematic situation and take proactive steps to prevent its recurrence in the future.

We need our elected officials to see what a huge problem this has become, and take steps to fix it before anyone else gets killed. Perhaps if there were stricter penalties – or any real penalties – in place for speeding drivers who kill pedestrians, less drivers would carelessly speed.

That’s what elected officials are there for – to work to make things better, safer. To improve tomorrow. Not just to hold press conference after the fact and look pretty.

We know cars are dangerous. There will undoubtedly be some pedestrian fatalities that are unavoidable, no matter what precautions we take. Accidents happen. But speeding is no accident. It’s a crime that needs be punished.

Police take one of four men in for questioning in connection with an alleged murder-suicide at the Hilton Garden Inn near JFK Airport. He was interviewed about the two men dead in the hotel lobby in the background, then released. Forum Newsgroup photos by Jeremiah Dobruck.

Police will continue investigating a shooting in a South Ozone Park hotel on May 10 that the District Attorney is calling a murder suicide.

At 12:30 p.m., 47-year-old Gary Zalevsky shot 31-year-old Brian Weiss before turning the gun on himself, police said.

The victim and shooter were eating with four other men in the cafeteria of the Hilton Garden Inn at 148-30 134th St. not far from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Police sources said they have video of the incident where Zalevsky lets off round after round at Weiss before shooting himself.

But the video and four others at the table gave them no clue what motivated the murder.

Hotel workers at the scene said they heard a half-dozen or more shots that left the two men in pools of blood.

They were pronounced dead at the scene. Both were from Florida.

A contractor at the Hilton said his crew was breaking up tile as the gunshots started.

He at first thought the blasts were the sound of a sledgehammer hitting tile until he realized it was too loud.

He said he heard at least five shots; another hotel worker said he heard up to nine.

The worker, who declined to give his name, said his 73-year-old father grabbed him by the back of his shirt and slammed him into a wall to prevent him from walking into the lobby, where two men were crumpled.

Police said the video showed one lying on the floor with another slumped over a chair.

Witnesses said the four other men tried to flee after the bullets started flying, and when police arrived, they quickly cuffed the four and laid them on the sidewalk.

The four were separated and taken in for individual questioning at the 106th Precinct. Police also inspected a matte-gray SUV with New Jersey plates outside the hotel.

None of the four were arrested, however. They are being treated as witnesses.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.

By Jeremiah Dobruck

j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com

Engine 293, in Woodhaven, was on the list of endangered firehouses during last year’s budget talks. It was spared then, but may face another scare this year. Forum Newsgroup Photo by Luis Gronda.

After Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed that he once again wants to close fire companies to bridge a budget gap, politicians and firefighters were quick to object in what’s become an annual tug of war.

Last year, Bloomberg proposed closing 20 fire companies, including four in Queens: Engine 294 on Jamaica Avenue, Engine 306 on 214th Place, Engine 328 on Central Avenue and Ladder 128 on Greenpoint Avenue.

Once again, 20 companies are on the line in Bloomberg’s revised $68.7 billion executive budget for the next fiscal year.

Last year, through negotiations with the City Council, the closings were averted.
And this year, the Uniformed Firefighters Association (UFA) and members of the council quickly blasted the plan.

“It’s wrong,” said Tom Butler, a spokesman for the UFA. “It’s economically shortsighted and from a safety perspective it’s also shortsighted.”

If those 20 companies close, the firefighters will be assigned elsewhere, but Butler argues the minutes and seconds added to response times around those companies matters dramatically.

“If 20 fire companies were to be closed, it would be a horrific problem for communities across New York,” he said. “Say you have a trash can in your living room or in your kitchen. A trash can fire will go from inception—a spark—to exceeding 2,000 degrees and engulfing the entire room in under 2 and a half minutes.”

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, chair of the fire and criminal justice committee, made much the same argument, saying the budget should not rely on cuts to safety.

“Closing even a single fire company in New York City will lead to increased response times, more fire fatalities and millions of dollars in property damage,” she said. “We simply cannot accept a budget proposal that puts the safety of New Yorkers in jeopardy. I have always been, and will remain, committed to preventing even a single firehouse from closing.”

Butler said the department is already short staffed by about 600 firefighters because of a hiring freeze that’s in place while a discrimination lawsuit works its way through the court system.

Cutting fire companies wouldn’t add to that deficit of manpower. The firefighters would be reassigned further away.

It could however, up response times to the immediate neighborhoods and reduce the amount of manpower available to nearby neighborhoods in case of major emergencies.

“In the end, the group that loses most is the community, the community that firehouse serves,” Butler said.

Crowley and other council members rallied in front of firehouses in their communities last year to stop the closings.

And it looks like the same combatants are posturing for this year’s fight.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilman Domenic M. Recchia, Jr, chairman for the finance committee, released a joint statement saying they disagree with Bloomberg’s method of balancing the budget.

They objected to proposed childcare cuts along with the firehouse closings.
“As we always have, the Council will work in the coming weeks to ensure the adoption of a budget for fiscal year 2013 that protects the most vulnerable, ensures public safety, and provides all of our citizens with the kind of City in which they can flourish,” Recchia said.

The details will be worked out in negotiations between the mayor and council members before the June 30 budget deadline.

By Jeremiah Dobruck

j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com

The replica is a half-size, 252-foot recreation of the gleaming black memorial in Washington D.C.

The Queens Veterans Day Parade Committee spearheaded bringing the wall to Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village with help and sponsorships from the United Veterans and Fraternal Organizations of Maspeth and Maspeth Federal Savings.

The wall, emblazoned with the names of more than 58,000 American troops who died in the Vietnam conflict, will be on display from June 29 to July 2, with opening and closing ceremonies on those two days.

The committee and other sponsors need help, however.

The wall must be assembled when a truck delivers it to the park on June 28.
But beforehand, carpenters must construct a base where local veterans will set up the wall.

The wall also needs volunteer staff throughout its stay to help visitors find names, prepare food, work security, assist with parking, cleanup and a range of other responsibilities.

The Parade Committee is also asking for donations to help offset costs.
Just last Monday, the Middle Village Property Owners and Residents Association gave $250 to the cause, but the project could use more.

Anyone interested in volunteering or donating can contact the Queens Veterans Day Parade Committee at 718-965-7500 or info@qvdp.org.

More information is available at www.qvdp.org.

Capt. John Travaglia, executive officer of the 104th Precinct, seated on the right, and Community Affairs Officer Thomas Bell, attended the Middle Village Property Owners and Residents Association to give a crime breakdown for the precinct. Forum Newsgroup Photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

There’s been a “dramatic” spike in drunken driving arrests recently across Middle Village, Maspeth, Ridgewood and Glendale, police from the 104th Precinct reported this week.

Precinct commanders say it’s due to proactively pulling drivers over.
So far this year, officers in the precinct have arrested 78 motorists for driving under the influence, said Capt. John Travaglia, executive officer of the 104th, who focuses heavily on traffic in the area.

Just during the last 28-day period of crime statistics, officers made 15 driving while intoxicated arrests compared to four during the same timeframe last year.
“We’re up dramatically in regards to that,” Travaglia told audience members at the Middle Village Property Owners and Residents Association on Monday night.
Travaglia said the jump is because of a focus on enforcement—not an increase in motorists driving drunk.

He said since before the year started, the 104th specifically has been trying to crack down on drunken driving.

To support this, he broke down the numbers; well more than half of the arrests happened before the drunken driver had a chance to hit someone.

Of the 78 arrests, officers made 48 by observing the car and pulling over the driver. That’s a 71 percent increase of DWI arrests in that manner compared to this time last year.

That left 30 arrests this year that happened after a collision.

Audience members wanted to know if there are any problem areas across the precinct where the arrests are concentrated, but Travaglia said there are not.

“They’re all over,” he said. “They really take place in any area. They’re definitely scattered throughout the precinct.”

Travaglia said many of these drivers are first-time offenders, although he’s seen a few repeat drunken drivers.

He added that some high-profile deaths such as George Gibbons, a Maspeth bar owner who was struck by a drunken driver, have helped the department keep its focus on the enforcement.

By Jeremiah Dobruck

j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com

Mildred Facinelli (right) and her husband, Steven, are hoping that Community Board 9 will approve three requests for speed hump installations, including one on their block on 98th Street in Woodhaven. Forum Newsgroup photo by Luis Gronda.

Residents at a local community board meeting got a chance to chime in on the potential addition of speed humps to roads in Woodhaven before the official vote.

At the Community Board 9 meeting on Tuesday, May 8, Chairperson Andrea Crawford announced that, when the board next meets in June, it would vote on whether or not to install speed humps in three areas within their district.

The three speed hump locations are all in Woodhaven: 80th Street between Park Lane South and Jamaica Avenue, 98th Street from Jamaica Avenue to Park Lane South and 94th Street from 89th Avenue to Jamaica Avenue.

Crawford said that they wanted to give residents who live in those areas a chance to speak in support or against the speed humps a month prior to the board voting on it.

Mildred Facinelli, who lives on 98th Street, was first up to speak.

She said that she is in support of the speed humps because she has seen two children hit and her neighbor’s car get sideswiped, both by people speeding in their cars. She has also seen people speeding on dirt bikes in both directions. The street is a one-way, northbound street.

“I’d like to rename my street, NASCAR Street,” Facinelli said.

She came with 98 signatures in hand from people that live on 98th Street. She said that there have been no fatalities due to the speeding, but she hopes to get a speed hump installed on her block anyway.

Other 98th Street residents that were not at the meeting also say that their block needs the speed humps.

Christine Ballek, who lives across the street from Facinelli, said that part of the problem is that many people who are driving on 98th Street often speed up to pass by the traffic light at the end of the block. She also said that she had her car damaged by a speeding vehicle that was traveling in the wrong direction while her car was parked.

Her parked car was hit so hard by a speeding car that one of her tires was facing the other direction after the crash.

“They’re really reckless,” Ballek said. “They really need a deterrent.” “You should probably have two on this block,” said Tom Nevin, another 98th Street resident.

He said that although no one has gotten seriously hurt or killed by a speeding car, it’s only a matter of time.

Steven Facinelli, Mildred’s husband, said the curve at the end of the street slightly deters drivers from speeding, but that a speed hump is still needed.

“If it wasn’t for that curve, they’d go even faster,” he said.

Ed Wendell, president of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association (WRBA), also spoke in support of the speed humps.

Wendell said that over the three years that he has been involved in the WRBA, he has been getting increased complaints about people speeding in the neighborhood.

He said that he is in favor of installing those three speed humps and adding more wherever possible.

“In fact, if the city ever developed speed bumps with deadly spikes, we’ll be in favor of them,” Wendell said.

Crawford said that the city Department of Transportation informed CB 9 that those three locations meet their criteria for installing a speed hump. CB 9 will vote on the speed humps at their next meeting, on June 12.

According to a spokeswoman, the DOT considers factors like street width, use and vehicle speed when deciding if speed humps are needed.

By Luis Gronda

Sidewalk violations, tree damage and sidewalk issues in Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village are all getting attention right now, CB 5 District Manager Gary Giordano told the board at its meeting on May 10 at Christ the King Regional High School in Ridgewood.

Giordano said most of the repairs are likely sidewalk violations the DOT has issued over the years that owners never repaired and will be billed for now.

He said he’s been in touch with the DOT advocating for home and business owners who say they are being billed for tree damage and violations the city should be responsible for, but now may be too late to dispute the problem.

“If the violation was issued in 2007, it’s kind of hard for us to make a decent argument any time now,” he said.

Giordano and CB 5’s chairman, Vincent Arcuri, also took this opportunity to get a major sidewalk repair done in Ridgewood.

Frank C. Prokop Square, where Fresh Pond Road and Cypress Hill Street meet, was almost entirely covered with cracked, patchy concrete and had been on the district’s capital improvement project list.

But because of the other sidewalk repairs going on now, the city was able to squeeze repairs to the square into this contract.

“Sometimes you get fortunate when you speak up at the right time and the timing is good,” said Giordano. “So that project that probably would have cost a substantial amount of money has gotten done.”

Giordano also gave an update on construction at the Cooper Avenue underpass site in Glendale.

He said it’s proceeding on schedule and should be done by June of 2013.
Currently, crews are working on the south side of the tunnel, repairing and strengthening the retaining walls. Soon they’ll switch to the north side.

“It was a big get for us,” Giordano said. “I think there were only four or five projects in the city of New York that are similar to that.”

Elections Next Month

CB 5 members began nominating board members for the elections scheduled for next month’s meeting.

All the officers look like they’ll remain largely the same.

The current chair, Vincent Arcuri, was quickly nominated to retain his seat.

Nominations will remain open until the vote, which will be at the meeting on June 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Christ the King Regional High School at 68-02 Metropolitan Ave in Ridgewood.

By Jeremiah Dobruck

j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com

This manhole cover on Centerville Street was one of eight stolen in Queens. Forum Newsgroup photo by Luis Gronda.

A Brooklyn man was arraigned last week in relation to a rash of
manhole cover thefts that occurred across the boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Andrew Modica was arrested in Bensonhurst and was arraigned on four charges, including reckless endangerment, criminal impersonation, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

According to police, Modica stole several Con Edison manhole covers while pretending to be an employee of that electric company. Police said that he stole a car and used it to transport the covers. Modica has a criminal history of more than 10 arrests going back to 1986, according to police.

Allan Drury, a spokesperson from Con Edison, said there were 40 manhole covers stolen in total. Twenty four of those incidents were in Brooklyn and the other 16 were split between Queens and the Bronx. Drury said that the covers cost $200 each to replace and weigh about 150 to 320 pounds. The replacements cost the agency $8,000 in total.

Out of the eight thefts in Queens, two were in the patrol area of the 106th Precinct. According to police, the two thefts in the 106 were both in Ozone Park — one on Centerville Street, and the other on 124th Street.

Captain Thomas Pascale, commanding officer of the 106th Precinct, spoke about the burglaries at the Precinct Community Council meeting last week.

He said that the exposed manholes are dangerous for people that are walking and driving.

“It’s a huge liability,” Pascale said. “It’s leaving electrical vaults open, you could drive your car into it, a child could walk into it.”

He also said that police believe the people who take the manhole covers sell them for about $15.

Pascale added that the NYPD and Con Edison released a joint press
release, to try and alert people that this has been going on recently.

Drury said that there have been six manhole thefts since the day the press release came out on May 3.

A spokesman from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office would not say whether or not Modica claimed responsibility for all or part of the manhole cover thefts, only saying that it is an ongoing investigation.

By Luis Gronda

The building housing Engine Company 305 and Hook and Ladder Company 151 in Forest Hills might soon be an official landmark, if it wins approval. Forum Newsgroup photo by Luis Gronda.

The building that houses New York’s bravest in Forest Hills could be added to the list of New York City landmarks if it gets the approval of a city agency and the City Council.

Engine 305, a firehouse on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, has been nominated for landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).
The facility was built between 1922 and 1924, and was intended to serve the population boom of that neighborhood during that time. It had an increase in residential construction after World War I ended.

The building is a two-story Neo-Medieval-style firehouse that is made out of red bricks. The size and design of the facility is thought to be unique for a New York City firehouse, but it was built to fit the structure of nearby communities in the area. John Sliney is credited with designing the building. During his tenure as head building inspector of the Fire Department, he designed about 70 firehouses throughout New York City.

To become a landmark, a building must first be nominated. Then the Request for Evaluation committee, which includes LPC’s chairman, executive director and chief of staff, reviews the materials and determines if the building meets its criteria for a landmark designation. After that, LPC’s director of research notifies the people who sent the request of the decision.

If the RFE committee decides that a proposal merits further consideration, a photo of the structure, a statement of the significance of the proposed landmark and the committee’s recommendation is sent to each of LPC’s 11 commissioners. The chairman ultimately decides if a landmark proposal is brought to a full review.
The LPC then holds a public hearing for a property that has been voted for landmark consideration.

After LPC’s research department writes a detailed report about the proposed landmark site, the LPC votes on the proposal at a public meeting. Six votes are needed to approve or deny a site.

The City Planning Commission then has 60 days to submit a report to the city council, highlighting how the designation would effect the surrounding area, especially in terms of zoning and projected public improvements.
Next, the city council votes on theproposal. It has 120 days after the LPC vote to change or reject the proposal.

According to Elisabeth de Bourbon, a LPC spokeswoman, two of the three formal stages of the designation process have passed, including a public hearing on the firehouse at their offices in Manhattan. She also said that they expect to send the proposal to landmark the building to the commissioners for a vote in June, and that the Manhattan meeting is the only one planned.

By Luis Gronda

Philip Dietrich, 43, who lives at 60-91 Putnam Ave. in Ridgewood, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday, May 9. He was charged with first-degree auto stripping, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, illegal possession of a vehicle identification number and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He was held on $1,000 bail and will return to court on June 13. He faces up to seven years in prison if he is convicted.

Police conducted a search inside Dietrich’s Ridgewood home around 8 p.m. on April 25 and found six motorcycle frames in his basement that were reported stolen between 2007 and 2010, according to a press release from Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. They also found seven motorcycle frames that had defaced vehicle identification numbers and hundreds of other motorcycle parts including rims, gas tanks and mirrors. In addition to that, police also recovered 15 methadone pills.

Brown said that Dietrich’s alleged actions will not be tolerated in Queens.

“Auto theft and related crimes are at historic lows and we must be vigilant in keeping them from rising,” Brown said. “In addition, this type of illegal operation has no place in a residential neighborhood.”

Community Board 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton was on hand at the meeting and said she would be detailing the community’s concerns in a letter to the MTA.

Also present at the meeting was the president of the Richmond Hill South Civic, Margaret Finnerty, who thanked the Alliance for their participation in the $1 million coupon drive to help soldiers abroad. Finnerty said that she was inspired by a promise from Assemblyman Mike Miller to throw a party when they reached the new goal: $2 million. Members of the Alliance pledged their future support in continuing the project.

Another hotbed issue introduced at the meeting was the recent acquisition of 15 additional police officers at the 106th Precinct. Nina DeBlasio, parent teacher coordinator at M.S. 207, took public exception to the fact that a majority of news reports about the additional police credited local elected officials with getting the extra cops. “I am sure we all appreciate the efforts of our elected officials, but the real work to get these extra police here was not done by electeds,” DeBlasio said. “It was done through the efforts of Captain Thomas Pascale and the 106th Precinct.”

DeBlasio told The Forum that people should be aware of how hard the precinct works to get things like this done. “Elected officials can make requests for personnel,” said DeBlasio, “but it is up to the commanding officer and the precinct to prove the need and actually get the officers assigned here.” She added that she has every confidence that Captain Pascale will keep trying to supplement the assignment with more officers as time goes on.

FDNY Firefighter George Tabeek, assigned to fire safety, was on hand to inform residents about the importance of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Tabeek supplied residents with printed material on safety measures they can take to protect themselves in case of fire and what to do to help firefighters take steps to save them.

Alliance Co-President Joann Ariola informed the membership that after deliberating about the hiring of a new security company to replace Phoenix Security, the board had made the decision not to hire any firm to do the job at this time. Residents put forth suggestions with respect to new security including the
installation of cameras in strategic locations. Ariola insured the membership that she would pass along their input.

The Lindenwood Alliance meets on the second Monday of each month at the Rockwood Park Jewish Center.

By Patricia Adams

Coach Bob Mackey, center, goes over game strategy in the huddle with the Christ the King Royals during a game this season. Photo courtesy of Christ The King High School.

It’s hard to believe that to find the breeding ground for future college, NBA, and WNBA stars—and even Olympians—one doesn’t need to look much further than a Middle Village school hidden in an alcove of trees on Metropolitan Avenue.

For the last 49 years, Christ the King Regional High School has earned a reputation as an athletic powerhouse, producing a virtual Who’s Who list among basketball players that have played for and won championships at nearly every athletic level available.

Most recently, with the selections of former alumni Sue Bird and Tina Charles to Team USA’s Women’s Basketball Team for the Summer 2012 Olympic Games in London, the Queens private Catholic high school has produced more Olympians for women’s basketball than any other high school in the country, with three alumni becoming Olympic athletes. Chamique Holdsclaw was the first.

That only adds to the list of accomplished athletes that have emerged from Christ the King High School’s heralded athletic program in recent years, the school already boasting current or former NBA players such as Lamar Odom, Speedy Claxton, and Erick Barkley as well as WNBA players such as Bird, Charles and Holdsclaw.

Yet the school has always maintained a strict policy of putting academics first, priding itself on molding something more than just model athletes—but model citizens.

The Men Behind the Lines

Longtime varsity basketball coach and Athletic Director Bob Mackey remembers well what he initially thought when the late John Savage, then the school’s athletic director, offered him a job as an assistant coach of Christ the King’s girls basketball team in 1991.

“I told him flat out ‘I don’t coach girls’ sports,” said Mackey, a Rockaway Beach native who then had primarily coached men’s basketball for years at St. Nicolas of Tolentine Catholic High School in the Bronx before the school closed that year.

The reason? During the travels that led Mackey into coaching, he ended up coaching a girls team at Oneonta High School during what he described as a terrible season, resulting in a 1-21 win-loss record.

However, as a favor to Savage—who helped lay the groundwork for Christ the King’s rise as a regional Catholic school athletic powerhouse during the 1970s—Mackey decided to take a chance and coach the girls’ basketball team, the Royals.
The rest was history. And Mackey’s run with the Royals certainly made its share of it, winning nine New York State championships as an assistant coach with the Royals before he took the head coaching job.

From there, the Royals continued to thrive under Mackey’s leadership, winning a myriad of accolades including the New York State Class A championships, multiple New York State Catholic championships, the team’s first-ever undefeated season in 2004-05, No.1 rankings in USA Today’s national poll of high schools, and Brooklyn/Queens Diocesean titles, including this year’s championship.

At least three players under his watch—Bird, Charles and Holdclaw—have gone on to be WNBA No. 1 draft picks.

Mackey, who also teaches chemistry at the school, doesn’t let that success stop him from putting a strict value on academics for the school’s players.

“The school rule is that if you’re failing two subjects, you’re disqualified until the next report card,” he said. “But to me, if you’re failing even one subject, I don’t think you should be playing.”

The GPA for the girls’ varsity basketball team is one statistic that Mackey finds great pride in, with the girls earning just under a 92 average collectively last year.

Guard Sierra Calhoun, a sophomore at Christ the King High School, goes one-on-one with a defender, showing off the skills that make her one of the city’s top female basketball players. Photo courtesy of Christ The King High School.

“The kids are worth it. The kids make it worth it, it’s all about the kids,” Mackey said. “It was great to win [Daily News] Coach of the Year, but it was much better for me to see Sierra Calhoun win [Daily News] Queens Player of the Year. Or for Rayne Conell, who had surgery to take out a cyst from her back, to come back and it worked out really well for her.”

It’s his bond with his players and passion for coaching that keeps Mackey—a married man with one daughter, Kerry, a sophomore at Christ the King—coming back after two decades to a grueling daily schedule that can extend to as long as 16 to 18 hours on game days during the season.

That schedule includes juggling four chemistry classes, constant meetings with teachers, administrators, players and parents, study hall, two hours of practice—or a regular season game—closing the gym around 9 p.m., heading home at 10 p.m., sleep and waking at 4:30 a.m. to start the whole cycle over again. And in between, Mackey’s phone is constantly ringing with scouts from colleges asking about the school’s athletes.

However, Mackey insists, he has grown to love the schedule, and for the chance to teach and coach the girls he has worked with through the years, it makes it all worth while.

The same passion is expressed by boys basketball coach and co-athletic director Joseph Arbitello, a Christ the King alumni who has coached at the school since 1997 before taking the reins in 2000.

The Queens Village native, married to Veronica Oswiecimski-Arbitello, the school’s 11th grade Assistant Principal and with two young daughters, has garnered a state championship in 2010 as well as several city championships and the Daily News Boys Coach of the Year award under his belt.

“I go in thinking that we’re going to win every year, because I feel that we have the best coaches and the best student athletes and I don’t think there is a reason why we can’t compete for a city championship every year,” he said.

Regarding his academic philosophy, Arbitello said he and Mackey both carefully monitor the grades of each player. In fact, they know right down to the last test score how well their athletes are doing, with both coaches not hesitating to call in parents to discuss any slump in grades.

“We take academics very seriously, and it becomes something where it’s just part of the culture,” he said.

Boasting SAT scores for their school that rank among the top 15 percent in the nation, the school’s history regents test scores have historically been over 90 percent with the past three years scoring an average of 97 percent, according to Peter Mannarino, principal of Christ the King High School.

Mannarino praised both Arbitello and Mackey for their commitment to academics, noting that a recent study by the school showed that students within the athletic program have often achieved greater academic success in comparison to many of their peers.

“They work really hard to make sure their athletes succeed academically,” he said. “For these two, academics is first with them.”

Stars of Tomorrow

If asked to pick a standout of his team, Mackey doesn’t have to point much further than Sierra Calhoun.

Recently turned 16, Calhoun, a Brooklyn-born sophomore who grew up around the game her whole life, started out wanting to play basketball at age 6 as she spent time with her brother, Omar Calhoun—another current Christ the King standout star.

“I wanted to do the same thing he did, so once I started, I never stopped,” Sierra said.

In only her second year, Sierra has already begun turning heads, winning the Daily News All-Queens girls basketball Player of the Year award this year. In addition, according to Mackey—who called her a “great ambassador for Christ the King and a great ambassador for basketball”—Sierra is trying out for Team USA’s 17 and under team that will play in the World Games at the Netherlands this summer.

Sierra, who boasts a 90.1 GPA, credits the school’s coaching staff for her development.

“I have a great coach in Bob Mackey,” she said. “You never want to slack in practice…you always have to work hard, and he pushes us to get us better.”

A very serious and focused student off the court, Sierra is always doing something related to basketball and schoolwork. “I’m not really the type to hang out,” she admits. “That’s not something that’s productive. I’m usually watching basketball, working on my game, doing homework, studying the game.”

Despite playing in the same school with Omar—considered widely as being among the top basketball players in New York City—Sierra said she does not feel competitive with her brother, but rather very close, and even protective.

The only time Sierra—who is hoping to be in the WNBA one day and aspires to become a sports announcer—feels competitive against Omar is when the two play against each other one-on-one .

“We don’t practice against each other that much now; it gets too competitive. When I was younger, I didn’t have a chance against him. But now, he has to play me; now, he has to be serious; there’s no playing around,” she said before adding with a laugh, “now he really has to play me, and he just might lose.”

That’s quite a statement, considering Omar, 18, a former Gatorade High School Player of the Year award winner in 2011, averaged 25.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.2 steals this past season, leading the Royals to a 19-8 record.

Arbitello calls Omar, a senior now with a GPA of 90, “by far the best player I’ve ever coached. He’s what everyone else will be compared to.”

By Jean-Paul Salamanca

jp.salamanca@theforumnewsgroup.com