Protest new High School in Hillcrest

Hillcrest community leaders, residents and government officials fearing traffic congestion and the effects of chemical pollutants staged a protest against the city's plan to build a new 800-student high school on the site of the former Queens morgue.
Approximately twenty people including Robert Trabold of Hillcrest Citizens for Neighborhood Preservation and New York State Senator Frank Padavan gathered Sunday afternoon on July 9 on the corner of 160th Street and Goethals Avenue.
They believe that the school, to be the new home of The Gateway Health Sciences High School in Jamaica, will further strain an already overburdened community which according to Trabold is already home to 35,000 students and served by three major bus lines filled to capacity.
The school which would serve approximately 800 students would create traffic and parking nightmares and be a possible danger to the health of students who might be exposed to chemicals and toxic substances that may have been dumped in the ground when the building was a morgue.
Trabold believes that the site may have potentially high levels of lead and mercury in the soil.
Senator Padavan, who has joined the community in their fight, informed the residents of the &#8220millions and millions [of dollars]” it would cost to cleanse the soil of toxic chemicals if they are found and states that he is &#8220not against building a school, but it has to be done in a smart way.”
The proposed school according to Padavan has not been analyzed sufficiently, as the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor have neglected to include its proposed construction in the city's traffic analysis, along with two new soon-to-be-built facilities in the neighborhood - an assisted living center and an ambulatory care complex.
Padavan believes the daily comings and goings of these establishments such as deliveries and parking for doctors, nurses, and technicians, is further reason that the city should find another location for the school.
Trabold, Padavan and other community leaders urge the city to build the school on the grounds of Jamaica Hospital who they claim has the infrastructure to house the new school.