By Nathan Duke
Giordano read through a long list of budget requests at the board's Feb. 13 meeting, but the top priority for residents of Middle Village, Maspeth, Ridgewood and Glendale was upgrading sewer lines and catch basins to prevent a repeat of last summer's severe flooding, which followed torrential storms that dumped between 2 and 3 inches of rain in two hours.”I believe some of these conditions can be alleviated in the short term through maintenance,” he said. “But sewer lines need to be replaced or revised to reduce flooding.”Giordano said the worst flooding in the board's communities was along the Cooper Avenue underpass and Eliot, Penelope, Maurice, Grand and Flushing avenues.Other community needs included reconstructing or upgrading neighborhood sites, such as the Cooper Avenue underpass, the Glendale library and several schools, Giordano said.He said the underpass would likely be completed by 2010, while a pedestrian crosswalk at the site was in the design phase. Phase one of the Glendale library upgrade, which includes replacing the roof and installing new rooftop air conditioning, will be completed by 2009, a Queens library foundation spokeswoman said. But Giordano said the project still needed an additional $1 million.Giordano said additional space is being built at several schools, including Glendale's PS 113 and Middle Village's PS 49, and a new pre-kindergarten school was being constructed at Seneca Avenue and Stockholm Street in Glendale.He said the community board would also undertake a number of street tree replantings in its four neighborhoods.”Community Board 5 has been the biggest replanter in New York for the last 25 years,” Giordano said.At the meeting, state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) slammed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, which would charge $8 to passenger vehicles and $21 to trucks entering Manhattan below 60th Street.”This is a money grab to pay for mass transit,” he said. “This is not about the environment.”Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
