By Howard Koplowitz
Community Board 13 got a straight answer Monday, but not the one it wanted to hear: There are no immediate plans to build a second precinct in the area.
A new station to complement the 105th Precinct, which covers the largest geographic area in the city, stretching from Glen Oaks in the north along the Nassau County border to Rosedale, is not in the works, said Community Affairs Commissioner Nazli Parvizi.
Parvizi said the current economic climate precludes the city from building a second precinct within CB 13’s area.
“I think that given the economy, we’re working to keep the cops we do have,” she said. “A new precinct is not in the works for the near future.”
Parvizi said the 105th Precinct does have a satellite station in Laurelton, but she acknowledged that is not the same as having a full-fledged precinct.
CB 13 Chairman Bryan Block said the new precinct is a top priority for the board.
“This is still a major topic within this community board,” he said.
Block said he was worried that if there were a terrorism incident at John F. Kennedy International Airport, resources from the precinct would be concentrated there, leaving the north portion of the precinct’s territory with a decreased police presence.
The board also approved a six-month moratorium on voting on street renamings in the area.
Lawrence McClean, CB 13’s district manager, said different community boards have different criteria to figure out which street renamings are appropriate and that the moratorium will allow the board’s Transportation Committee to come up with its own criteria.
McClean said since no criteria has been established for street renamings, “the board can be considered being arbitrary and capricious.”
The board also heard from the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System about plans to build a new inpatient building at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks.
Bernie Dubin, North Shore-LIJ’s vice president for project management, said the construction had originally been planned to start well into the future, but a benefactor stepped up and building is expected to start in September.
A North Shore-LIJ spokesman said the health system would not be releasing the benefactor’s name or how much they donated.
Dubin said the planned two-story, 120-bed inpatient building will replace “inadequate and old” cottages built for the psychiatric hospital in the 1940s and ’50s.
“The method of treating psychiatric patients has changed dramatically since then,” Dubin said.
He said the inpatient building will house adolescents, geriatric and dementia patients as well as the general population.
He estimated the construction would take 30 months to complete.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
