By Daniel Massey
Workers have begun to demolish St. Anthony’s Hospital on Woodhaven Boulevard, a building which had become a significant public safety concern, said Community Board 9 Chairman Paul Sapienza at a meeting last Tuesday night.
The hospital, which has been vacant for nearly three years, has been the site of numerous fires and had turned into a hangout for neighborhood youths.
“A lot of vandalism and fires and not so great things have been happening there,” said John Tynan, director of housing for Catholic Charities, which owns the building. “It’s a very large building that presents quite a few problems.”
Tynan said Catholic Charities was looking into transforming the Woodhaven Boulevard end of the nearly seven-acre site into an assisted-living center for the elderly, but he said no definitive determination on its future had been made.
He also said the Board of Education had begun a preliminary investigation into using the back end of the site for a kindergarten through third grade school.
“It’s a very large parcel of property and we’re going to be very careful about how we develop it,” said Tynan.
The hospital, located between 89th and 91st avenues, was initially run by Franciscan sisters who treated people afflicted with tuberculosis. When the lung disease became less of a problem, Tynan said the property was used by the Catholic Medical Center for office space.
At the meeting, CB 9 adopted a motion in favor of using the site for affordable elderly housing. “The board passed a resolution supporting St. Anthony’s Hospital to provide assisted living for seniors in the community,” said District Manager Mary Ann Carey.
While discussion of the vacant hospital site dominated the meeting, the presence of District 29 Councilwoman-elect Melinda Katz prompted Sapienza to address looming citywide budget cuts. The chairman said the proposed slashing of community board budgets by 15 percent would have a devastating effect on CB 9.
“That’s almost impossible for an organization with a $170,000 budget,” said Carey. “We’d lose two staff people.”
Carey said she was optimistic that newly elected officials like Katz, who is director of community boards for Borough President Claire Shulman, would work to prevent such budget reductions.
“We have confidence because many of the new council members are more familiar with community boards than their predecessors,” she said.
Reach reporter Daniel Massey by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 2290-0300, Ext. 156.
