Insensitive Graffiti Galls Couple by Tonia Cimino - The Queens Courier

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When she got the phone call, she was angry. But when she saw it for herself, she was appalled.

Pamela Baumann, who, along with her husband Andrew, founded New York Families for Autistic Children (NYFAC), said she was alerted to the graffiti on the Bernard Fineson Center in Howard Beach on Monday, July 12.

She passed by, with her 16-year-old autistic son, and both were shocked to read “Dirtnikki ♥s retards.”

“‘Mentally retarded’ is a thing of the past,” said Andrew. “It has such negative connotations. Graffiti is graffiti, but this – especially on that building – is terrible.”

In fact, said Andrew, the word “retarded” is so negative that the body under which Fineson – and NYFAC – run, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, has been changed to the NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.

Pamela called Community Board 10, the 106th Precinct, State Senator Joseph Addabbo and City Councilmember Eric Ulrich.

106th Precinct Commanding Officer Deputy Inspector Joseph G. Courtesis assured her that “every single cop has been assigned” to look for the vandal.

And graffiti officer Frank Reina said that he is looking into it and may have some ideas as to who is responsible.

In addition, Reina said, the perp might have tagged other locations in the area, including the library, Blockbuster video and at 133rd Street and Cross Bay Boulevard.

The Baumanns are so upset over it; they have even vowed to paint over the graffiti themselves.

Succeed Seminerio? Baldeo Waits it Out by Sergey Kadinsky - Serge Kadinsky's Journalism Blog

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Seminerio is facing serious charges, but fellow elected officials are not jumping the gun on his likely future. Charged with corruption, the 16-term assemblyman could face up to 20 years in federal prison. As he ponders a plea deal, no official contender stands to challenge him for his Assembly seat, which he has held since 1978.

“He is on trial and has not been convicted,” said State Senator-elect Joseph Addabbo, Jr. “The party has not commented on his future, pending results of the trial.” Much of Addabbo’s Senate district overlaps Seminerio’s Assembly district, in neighborhoods where Democrats and Republicans have recently faced off in tight contests for State Senate and City Council seats.

In contrast, Seminerio faced no opponents in his latest reelection on Nov. 4, two months after being charged with pocketing $500,000 in payoffs through a phony consulting company that offered favors to organizations doing business with the state. His candidacy was cross-endorsed by the Republican and Conservative parties. In contrast to his Democratic colleagues, Seminerio holds more conservative positions on topics such as abortion, capital punishment, and gay marriage.

Among the possible successors is lawyer Albert J. Baldeo, who narrowly lost to incumbent Serphin Maltese in the 2006 race for state senate. In early 2008, he ran again, but subsequently dropped out to support fellow Democrat Addabbo, who went on to defeat Maltese.

In his law office on Liberty Avenue, photographs show Baldeo shaking hands with a host of prominent elected officials, and awards testify to his experience in community leadership. For now, Baldeo has opted to wait out his options, pending the outcome of Seminerio’s trial. “I will answer the call if Democratic leaders call upon me to run at the appropriate time,” said Baldeo.

At the same time, considering Seminerio’s health and age, the prospect of imprisonment has garnered him some support. “An imprisonment for him would be much harder than for a healthy young man,” said his attorney, Ira Cooper, in an interview with the Daily News.

While the legal woes of an aging incumbent could be a godsend for a young upstart, Baldeo was having none of it. “My heart goes out to him and his family. He has a long serving record of 30 years. He is an institution,” said Baldeo. “I hope the allegations against him are untrue.”

At the same time, Baldeo reports that he has received numerous calls asking when he will declare his candidacy for Seminerio’s seat. “Some say that it is a natural seat for me, and that I am the strongest candidate for that seat,” said Baldeo. “I got 69 percent of the votes in Assemblyman Seminerio’s district when I ran against Senator Maltese in 2006, although Seminerio endorsed Maltese against me.”

Baldeo takes pride in receiving 25 percent of the primary vote against Addabbo even after dropping out, and using his clout to deliver the Senate seat for him in the general election. “That proves that I have a strong base in the district,” said Baldeo.

Should he run, he already has a head start in funding the potential race. “. I have the funds from the Addabbo race available to run against any likely competitors-over $400, 000,” said Baldeo.

“Many tell me that I will be the strongest candidate for this seat.”

Seminerio Talking Plea by Pete Davis - The Queens Courier

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The attorney for Queens Assemblymember Anthony Seminerio, 73, said his client might be looking to cop a plea with federal authorities in order to avoid jail time, according to an article published in the New York Daily News on Sunday, November 30.

“An imprisonment for him would be much harder than for a healthy young man,” Seminerio’s attorney Ira Cooper told the Daily News. “It’s very hard to tell someone in his health that if you say you’re guilty, you could go to jail for years.”

In September, FBI agents arrested Seminerio after an investigation found that he allegedly made up a fake consulting company and used it to bilk more than $500,000 in bribes in exchange for actions he took as a New York State legislator.

The federal charges revealed that from April of 2000 through September of 2008, Seminerio, 73, set up a consulting firm, Marc Consulting, and received payments in return for actions he took as a law maker that would benefit those companies.

Seminerio, who has represented parts of western and southern Queens in the Assembly for 30 years, then would deposit the money from Marc Consultants into his own personal bank account, it was alleged.

Cooper told the Daily News that he has spoken with U.S. prosecutors about a deal.

“They’ve offered me something to plead guilty to, something like using a scheme or a device to embezzle, but it would open him up to those sentencing guidelines,” Cooper said. “In order to decide whether [to accept a plea deal], we need a lot more information from the U.S. attorney’s office, which at this point they may not want to give us. No one knows how much time he is facing.”

Multiple phone calls to Cooper’s office were not returned. A person who answered the phone at Cooper’s Rosedale law office said that Cooper would not be making any other comments at this time.

It is unclear if the charges facing Seminerio will affect whether he takes office in January. Seminerio just won reelection to his western Queens Assembly seat after running unopposed in the 38th Assembly District last month.

The next scheduled date in the Seminerio case is December 10 where a number of things could happen, including an indictment or plea, or the date can be rolled over to a later date.

Mother Claims School Made Daughter Sick by Stephen Bronner -- The Queens Courier

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For 12 years, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has known about a potentially deadly chemical in the soil on a city-owned site less than two blocks from an Ozone Park public school - but cleanup plans have been snagged by red tape.

Now, the mother of a former student of Public School 65 is suing the city.

“I had no idea that the school was sitting on a toxic plume,” said Katie Acton, who believes her daughter developed chronic asthma while attending the 99th Street school, beginning in 1999.

“If I had known, I would have removed her long before the three years,” added Acton, whose daughter, Kaylyn is now 15. “When I did remove her, it made a big difference.”

The community did not learn of the toxic chemicals left behind by an aircraft parts plant until 2002. Soon after, the state ordered a clean up, but the chemicals are still in the ground. DEC officials, P.S. 65 administrators and the Department of Education (DOE) maintain there is no danger for the students and staff of the school.

“Back in 2002, we became aware of concerns from the school community about the soil and air,” said Marge Feinberg, a DOE spokesperson. “This has not been an issue since the indoor air was tested and found to be acceptable.”

She added, “To allay concerns of the community regarding soil, the Department of Education installed additional ventilation and barriers to keep any vapors from the soil away from the building that houses the school.”

When asked about Acton’s lawsuit, Feinberg responded, “We do not comment on pending litigation.”

Seven years after the DEC discovered the pollution, the agency took action. In February 2003, the DEC reached an agreement in court for a clean up with the company responsible for the pollution, End Zone Inc., previously known as Ozone Industries, said DEC spokesperson Maureen Wren.

However, work has not begun.

“We’re at this crossroad where we collected a lot of assessment and data and now we’re just figuring out the best way to mitigate the site,” said David Austin, a senior project manager for ENSR, a private international environmental and energy consulting company hired by End Zone.

Degreasing chemicals that were used by End Zone, an aircraft parts manufacturer, contaminated the soil under the site, according to a DEC summary. The city, which owns the land and most of the buildings at 99th and 100th Streets between 101st and 103rd Avenues, rented the space to the factory.

The city’s Division of Real Estate Services, which serves as the landlord of city properties, could not be reached for comment.

In addition to the school, residences and shops are near the site. A row of homes and a masonry company are across the street. Other manufacturing companies occupy the spaces under the abandoned elevated Long Island Railroad tracks along 99th Street.

The DEC declared the land potentially dangerous, but concluded in a summary of its study that while “Groundwater beneath the site has been contaminated with trichloroethene (TCE) due to past site operations,” it needed additional information to determine the extent of the pollution.

ENSR investigators found chemical concentrations in the soil exceeded state standards, Austin said. That landed the site in the DEC’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which oversees the cleansing of contaminated properties so that they can be reused or redeveloped, according a 2007 DEC document.

Austin said the project is currently in the remedial stages, meaning ENSR will determine when and how to clean up the site. He cites red tape for the long delay.

“Every step of the way we have to provide a draft work plan to the state, and they typically take three to four to five months to approve it,” said Austin. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but that’s the way they operate.”

The city’s ownership of the land complicates matters.

“Before we do any work, we have to get an access agreement from the City of New York,” Austin said. On average, this takes two to six months, he said. Once the firm visits the site, it collects data, then conducts lab work and analyzes the findings, which takes months. This process has repeated two or three times, Austin said.

“A lot has been done since 2004, if you consider the work that it takes. That is the reality of a site like this, when the state is involved and the city owns the property,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DEC contends the public has nothing to worry about. “Due to the groundwater contamination, this is a significant threat to the environment and the public health,” Wren said. “However, the area is served by a public water supply and the concern of potential vapor contamination in the P.S. 65 school was eliminated with the installation” of a soil purifying system in October 2002.

Walter Hang, founder of Toxics Targeting, a New York-based company that investigates potentially dangerous sites for homebuyers, consultants and engineering firms, said the only way to solve the problem is by removing the pollution.

“What you’re really concerned about is, did the authorities respond to the problem and in effect clean it up, or did they not?” he asked.

Exposure to large amounts of TCE could cause asphyxiation, chronic health problems like cancer and long-term neurological disorders, according to The Risk Assessment Information System, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The New York State Department of Health’s February 2005 fact sheet on TCE calls the risk from the chemical “low.” It says, “the guideline is based on the assumption that people are continuously exposed to TCE in air all day, every day for as long as a lifetime. This is rarely true for most people who are likely to be exposed for only part of the day and part of their lifetime.”

Acton, meanwhile, hopes the lawsuit will help to move things forward. “I don’t want another child to go through what my child went through,” she said.

Lexus Owner Found in Bag in Trunk by Josh Schneps - The Queens Courier

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A medical examiner has identified the body found in a Lexus SUV in Forest Park as that of Yuriy Grinchuk, 40, to whom the vehicle was registered.

According to Megan Cuccia, a spokesperson for the ME, “The case is pending. We need to do further investigation in order to determine the cause of death.”

The body was discovered by a sanitation worker on Monday, May 5 when he reportedly noticed a foot sticking out of a transparent plastic bag inside the car parked on Park Lane South.

Grinchuk, of Brooklyn, was reportedly arrested last month for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, Lyubov Tulaykina.

Thank you Sheldon by David M. Quintana - The Queens Courier

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Thank you Sheldon

I would like to applaud the New York State Assembly, its members and Speaker Sheldon Silver, for delivering a knockout punch to Mayor Bloomberg’s wrong-headed Congestion Pricing Plan (CPP).

Much as I support the idea of reducing vehicular traffic and alleviating chronic asthma conditions in NYC, most people in Queens were very upset by the CPP. They saw it as a new regressive tax and I agree.

We in Queens have the worst public transportation in the city and the longest commutes in the nation. Folks from outside the city already take tolled bridges and tunnels, so the Mayor’s plan would have hit the people who use the free East River bridges hardest. Being a borough of middle class folks, we use these free crossings because we do not have the extra disposable income to pay for the more direct and expensive methods.

In my lifetime, I can honestly say that southern Queens always is screwed by Manhattan projects. Moreover, you know the additional CPP funds would end up paying for the 2nd Avenue subway line and the Fulton Street station in Manhattan, not spent here in Queens.

I think the proposal was just another way for the Manhattan-centric mayor to make Manhattan an island for only well-heeled, wealthy people, like himself and tourists. By making CPP so cost-prohibitive, it was just Bloomberg’s way of keeping the riff-raff from Queens from having access to our own city.

I feel we all owe a debt of gratitude to Sheldon Silver and the NYS Assembly for not allowing Mayor Bloomberg to bully the residents of Queens into a misconceived plan and for making it dead on arrival in Albany.

David M. Quintana
Ozone Park

Hooker's Hangout by Noah Rosenberg- The Queens Courier

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On a recent weekday afternoon, the intersection of Rockaway Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue in Ozone Park looked like many other sun-flooded crossings in Queens. School buses returned children home; mothers pushed their toddlers in strollers; an elderly woman shakily made her way down her front steps, a cane in one hand, the railing in the other. A Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses loomed in the background.

However, in front of Convenience & Grocery, a 24-hour deli precariously plopped on one corner, a woman paced back and forth. She picked up the pay phone for a minute or two, paced some more, and then exchanged sideways glances with a man who got intimate with the phone booth, as if feeling around for a quarter he had dropped.

Dee Bhoj watches this scene unfold everyday, though hardly through rose-colored glasses. As a manager at Convenience & Grocery, Bhoj can look out from his perch behind the register through the scratched glass door plastered with lotto and newspaper decals. He sees two or three prostitutes during the day, and said there are nearly a dozen who hang out in front of the store at night.

“We have troubles with all the prostitutes outside. We yell at them, we call the cops sometimes but they never take action about that,” said Bhoj, frustrated by a 20-year-old saga that replays repeatedly in front of his store.

Bhoj cited drug use and panhandling that takes place when prostitutes have no customers. His patrons regularly complain, but Bhoj said he can’t continue leaving his business to go outside and chase away the girls.

“You have to do something about that, that’s all,” he said.

Bhoj and other aggravated residents may have found their knight in shining armor in Eric Ulrich, the president of Our Neighbors Civic Association of Ozone Park.

The graffiti and robberies that have paved the way for prostitution “give the psychological impression of lawlessness,” said Ulrich, who noted that few other neighborhoods with single-family homes have prostitution problems.

“I think the time for action is definitely now,” he said, urging police and elected officials to clean up his neighborhood.

Ulrich’s words ring a little louder because of recent sightings of prostitutes near Liberty Avenue and 93rd Street, a previously uncharted area.

An active member of the community, who wished to remain anonymous, saw women approaching vehicles in front of a deli on one corner of the intersection at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5.

“No. I am not OK with this. It’s not right that people are soliciting on the streets,” said the source, who noted that in his 42 years living in the area he has always seen “at least two or three girls” at Rockaway and Atlantic but had never previously seen prostitutes at 93rd and Liberty.

Jun Park, who has owned the deli at 93rd and Liberty for three years, seemed unperturbed when first told of the prostitution sighting. But, he closes at 5 p.m., Park later said, long before neon store signs cast hazy spotlights on shady street deals.

“I haven’t seen anything,” said John, an employee at Tommy’s Pizza on Liberty Avenue across from the deli.

However, John said the restaurant had been closed for three weeks and even when it was open for business, he never has time to look outside.

Johnathon Carter, 19, and others in his crowd admit the area has its share of crime but they are skeptical that prostitution is encroaching on their turf.

“I can be walking down the street at midnight and I’ll be by myself,” explained Carter, who lives in the neighborhood and often passes time late at night in front of a store down the block.

Sure enough, just before midnight that same day, the block was barren aside from the occasional passing car or lone individual making his or her way home. The deli’s gray metal gate was nothing but a blank canvas, waiting for the ladies of the night to emerge and cast their shadows.

Detective Ralph Vega of the Queens Vice Squad said he had not heard of prostitutes near Liberty and 93rd nor was he aware of an increase in patrols that would have driven prostitutes into the new territory.

“When we get complaints, depending on the time, we reinforce patrols a little,” he said, explaining that Rockaway and Atlantic has “always been an issue.”

While it seemed to be a quiet night all around, Rockaway and Atlantic was still an issue. A woman sauntered up and down the block, occasionally peeking over her shoulder and conversing with two young men on the steps of Convenience & Grocery, ultimately disappearing into a vehicle.

Louis Martell, an area resident, said this sort of activity comes with the territory.

“Believe me, I know the streets; there’s a good side and a bad side,” he said.

“That’s the way it is. We do not wish to do it, but that is what you have to do to survive. Personally, I do not let that bother me. I go on with my life.”

Nevertheless, others, like Ulrich, are not so complacent.

“It’s probably an indication of the decline in quality of life in the community,” he said.

“It’s not looking good.”

Queens Sun Courier: Tragic Figures: Gallagher Latest Queens Elected To Rise High And Crash Low

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Dishonored City Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village) and his wife, Donna, bobbed and weaved hand-in-hand along Queens Boulevard late Friday morning, doing their best to avoid the zealous media mob like a weary prizefighter cheating the knockout blow.

Couple that scene with the surreal image of Gallagher, 43, being escorted into Queens County Supreme Court in handcuffs by four tight-lipped detectives stuffed in suits earlier that morning and you have quite the sensational, if sad, setting.

But this is not a novel sight to some Queens residents and local political pundits. Dennis Gallagher simply is the latest in a line of elected Queens community leaders to be at the center of scandal.

Gallagher’s Scandal

Gallagher, a father of two teenaged boys, surrendered Friday morning to the NYPD Queens Special Victims Squad at the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills. A grand jury handed down a 10-count indictment that charged the 30th District councilman with various counts of rape, criminal sexual act and assault.

Bail was set at $200,000, which Gallagher immediately posted with the aid of his brother. His next scheduled court date is Sept. 28.

The indictment is the result of an investigation into a 52-year-old Middle Village grandmother’s claim that Gallagher sexually assaulted and physically abused her on a Sunday night in early July in a second-floor room at his district office on Metropolitan Avenue.

Gallagher has repeatedly refuted the woman’s claims, saying the encounter was consensual and the he will be “vindicated in the end.”

Gallagher was officially charged with three counts of first-degree rape, three counts of third-degree rape, one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of criminal sexual act in the third degree and one count each of second and third-degree assault.

The most serious charges – first degree rape and criminal sexual act in the first degree, both violent felonies – carry maximum sentences of 25 and 20 years, respectively, and require the convicted to register with their local precinct as a sex offender.


“The charges are clear: there was no consent in this case,” said Queens DA Richard Brown, who characterized the indictment as proof that “no one is above the law.”

“The thing that troubles me most is that we’re dealing with the actions of a public official,” Brown lamented.

As a result of the criminal developments, Gallagher informed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn Friday afternoon that he would be stepping down from his leadership position as Minority Whip, his position on the Budget Negotiating Team and asked that he be temporarily removed from his Council committee assignments.

Due to term limits, Gallagher is set to relinquish his Council seat in 2009.

The Queens Buzz

This isn’t the first time Dennis Gallagher has stumbled into the scandalous spotlight. In 2001 he was accused of selling pornography – believed at the time to be comprised of vintage issues of Playboy and Penthouse magazines – from a fourth-floor office that he rented from Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village. Gallagher was investigated but cleared of any wrongdoing.

Some have speculated in recent reports that Gallagher’s marriage has been troubled for some time, and that part of it stems from his alleged affinity for spirits and frequenting neighborhood watering holes like Woodhaven House on Woodhaven Boulevard and Danny Boy’s on Dry Harbor Road on a regular basis; the latter is where Gallagher is said to have met the complainant on the night in question.

That a Queens politician is no saint is, unfortunately, not stop-the-presses fare in this city. Sex scandals, fraud, embezzlement and bribery are just some of the issues that have recently managed to make headlines and seep into the fabric of the borough’s proud political lore.

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Queens Chronicle - Pipeline Official Insists Howard Beach Is Safe

by Joseph Wendelken...

To those Howard Beach residents who believed that the orange jet fuel line stanchions in front of their homes signaled their vulnerability to a devastating terror plot, a Buckeye Partners official delivered a clear message on Monday night: “The pipeline will not blow up.”

Originating in Linden, N.J., Buckeye lines deliver fuel to Newark Liberty Airport, Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Long Island City, LaGuardia Airport, western Long Island and Kennedy International Airport. Kennedy’s significance to the city as a transportation hub and the enormous quantity of fuel it receives daily — over 3.5 million gallons — made the pipeline the target of four alleged terrorists arrested last month.

Roy Haase Jr., a Buckeye senior manager, said during his presentation in the basement of St. Barnabas Lutheran Church that amid the headline-grabbing hysteria, several misconceptions about the pipeline emerged. Among them were that it runs under homes, that it is unregulated and that it could explode if its liquid petroleum were sparked.

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Times Ledger - JFK Fuel Lines Safe: Operator:

by Howard Koplowitz

Howard Beach residents should not fear the system of petroleum pipelines that runs through Howard Beach and ends at John F. Kennedy Airport because it is packed with safety measures, an official from the pipeline company said Monday.

Roy Haase, the manager of right of way and permits for Buckeye Pipeline Co., tried to dispel myths about the pipeline during a 15-minute presentation at a town hall meeting with Howard Beach residents at St. Barnabas Church that was sponsored by City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach). He zeroed in on what he called falsehoods that the pipeline is not safe and that it runs underneath homes.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about the pipeline system," Haase said, referring to media coverage of the threat to the pipeline. "There were things said that went way beyond reason."

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Queens Sun Courier: Company Says Jet Fuel Pipeline is Safe...


by Liz Skalka...

A representative from the company that owns and operates the pipeline to John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) tried to calm apprehensive Howard Beach residents on July 9 by presenting safety points about the structure and insisting that it is safe and relatively insusceptible to tampering.

However, residents who attended the event at St. Barnabas Church on Monday, July 9 were not entirely convinced. Several posed questions about the red warning markers located near homes close to the jet fuel pipeline’s path, and how the community would be affected if the structure that runs like an artery through parts of Queens were once again the target of a terror plot.

Some residents said the Town Hall meeting did not provide them with piece of mind or any new information.

“I don’t feel any safer or less safe,” said Anne Vigilarolo, a lifelong Howard Beach resident. “We don’t know anything we didn’t know before. What would blow it up? They don’t know.”

When Roy R. Haase Jr., the representative from Buckeye Partners - the company that runs the pipeline - responded to a very direct question from Vigilarolo during the question and answer session about what someone would have to do to cause significant damage to the structure and the surrounding community, Haase said that could not be answered and each scenario is different.

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Queens Courier: Fix it and they will come . .

$66 Million upgrade to Gateway National Park

BY TONIA N. CIMINO


Over the past nine years, nearly $66 million worth of renovations have been completed or are underway in New York City's Gateway National Park.

In a “State of the National Park" speech, Congressmember Anthony Weiner said that the upgrades would work to protect and improve its wetlands, wildlife refuge, nature trails, historic sites, playgrounds, recreation areas and more.

The funding has gone to facelifts for the Golf Center, Gateway Marina, the popular Riis Pitch & Putt golf course, Riis Landing, preserving the Wildlife Refuge, renourishing the beaches and wetlands and the rehabilitation of playing fields in Fort Tilden and the Riis Park Tot Lot.

"Though millions enjoy Gateway National Park every year, it's still one of New York City's best kept secrets," said Weiner. "These improvements will continue to fuel an ongoing renaissance at Gateway that will allow even more New Yorkers to enjoy the outdoors without leaving the Big Apple."

Just last summer, Weiner officially opened the 1.5 mile multiple-use path that runs through the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, allowing Gateway visitors to bike, stroll, jog, rollerblade and bird watch along one of the most scenic routes in Queens. The path expands the Rockaway Gateway Greenway, a 20-mile network of pathways around Jamaica Bay and is a new link to the city's 350-mile Greenway system.

As part of the restoration, Weiner unveiled an innovative $13 million Elders Point Island wetlands restoration project to save the marsh islands ecosystem in Jamaica Bay. The project pumped 270,000 cubic yards of sand and planted 900,000 plants to restore 24 acres at Elders Point East.

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