By James DeWeese
But just when that work, as well as work on two adjacent stations, will begin depends on whom you talk to.
Using a portion of a $1.5 million block secured by state Assemblymen Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) and Jeffrion Aubry (D-Corona) to revamp three stations along the No. 7 line, the Transit Authority plans to give the elevated stop adjacent to Corona Plaza a major face-lift, spokeswoman Marisa Baldeo said.
Eventually, she said, using money from its own coffers, the agency will also install a $50,000 pigeon-control device on the roof of the station that delivers a low-voltage electric shock to the wayward birds.
But lingering questions over when the renovations Peralta said were originally scheduled to begin in June will actually start have placed the pressing pigeon problem on the back burner.
Baldeo said work on the 103rd Street station and the other two – 90th Street and 111th Street – will not begin until the Transit Authority has received the funds that Peralta has promised. But according to Peralta, who raised concerns about the condition of the nearly century-old No. 7 line more than 1 1/2 years ago, the agency had received $500,000, enough for one station, and the rest is on the way.
“They already have the money. It's just a matter of when they get started,” Peralta said of the authority. “They claim one day, but the reality of it is that it will probably happen a month later.”
Peralta said the 103rd Street project has been delayed while the Transit Authority conducts studies of the other two stations for which he and Aubry secured funds. He said he does not understand why the studies must be so comprehensive.
“It's the same exact thing at the other stations,” he said.
As part of the planned renovations at the 103rd Street station, workers will install wall panels along the platform, replace decrepit stairs, upgrade elevators and apply a full coat of paint to the station. The renovations at the other two stations will be similar, although a final plan has not been adopted, Peralta said.
The rehabilitation work must be completed before the pigeon-control device can be installed by second-lowest bidder JC Ehrlic Co. at the station, where the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said “pigeon feces and odors were found to be causing unsanitary conditions,” according to a November letter from the agency.
“A main issue is that people thought that as soon as (Peralta) secured the funds and it was available that the system would be installed,” Baldeo said. “But it is really important for them to understand that the rehab work has to be done first.”
In the meantime, the Transit Authority has pledged that cleaning crews would sanitize and disinfect affected stations on a daily basis, according to a Feb. 24 letter from the agency's president, Lawrence Reuter, to Peralta.
Reuter also said the pigeon-control device would not alleviate the pigeon situation within Corona Plaza, a wooded triangle next to the station where Reuter said passersby illegally spread pigeon feed.
“No overall solution will be achieved until the pigeons leave the area,” Reuter said. “This will not happen as long as food is available to them and they can still roost in the trees in Corona Plaza or on the roofs of commercial and residential buildings in the area near the subway station.”
Relief for the other pigeon-infested stations along the No. 7 in Queens may take even longer, however. Baldeo said the Transit Authority has capital funding budgeted to identify four new stations per year for pigeon-control programs.
The 103rd Street station was the only Queens station to make the Transit Authority's short list for this year.
But Peralta said he has encouraged transit planners to include the $50,000 pigeon-control device in their plans for the other two No. 7 line stations, paying for it out of the funds he secured from the state.
Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
