By John Tozzi
Now, although leaders of the civic insist that the request is unrelated, the group has asked DOT to fix street signs in the neighborhood that they say have deteriorated.”I schlepped all over the neighborhood reporting all the damaged and faded street signs,” said civic President Michael Feiner.The civic's complaint came after former Bayside Hills Civic President Jerry Iannece won a months-long legal battle to get tickets dismissed that were issued by the DOT over the group's trademark banners dismissed. The civic group prevailed in a written decision Jan. 11.”They made me jump through all the hoops,” said Iannece, who argued the case pro bono and jokingly calls himself the civic's legal department. “I won outright on the merits.”The decorative banners that hang from streetlights in the area went up in 1996, when Iannece led the group. He renewed permits every three months, but in 2005 the DOT issued violations for not having permits. An administrative judge threw out the tickets after an Environmental Control Board hearing Dec. 6. Both Iannece and Feiner said the Bayside Hills Civic's latest request – for the DOT to look at the condition of its own signs – is in no way tit-for-tat.”It's something that actually pre-dated the banners,” Iannece said.Feiner said he counted about 30 street signs that are either faded, bent or dangling in the confines of Bayside Hills, which includes several blocks on either side of Bell Boulevard between 48th Avenue and the Long Island Expressway.”It's noticeable,” he said, particularly in a pocket of Queens that has always proudly maintained its appearance, with plantings along green center malls and, among other things, neighborhood banners. “See how many of the signs do not look fresh. See how many of the signs look faded,” said Feiner.Reach reporter John Tozzi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 174.
