Vols Want Illegal Dumping Crackdown
Illegal dumping, the ongoing Cooper Avenue underpass reconstruction project and efforts to assist local food pantries were hot topics during the Glendale/104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol’s meeting last Thursday night, Feb. 9, at St. Pancras Pfeifer Hall in Glendale.
One of the members of the patrol complained about a number of dog owners who fail to clean up after their canines defecate on public sidewalks. This led other attendees to voice their disdain over the illegal placement of household garbage into public waste baskets along Myrtle Avenue.
Even so, a number of residents of Glendale reportedly received summonses for failing to recycle their garbage properly during a crackdown conducted by the Sanitation Department, though the homeowners claimed that they followed all recycling laws.
Speaking about the illegal dump- ing on Myrtle Avenue, 104COP President Frank Kotnik noted that the Sanitation Department needs to increase its enforcement efforts on the strip and to educate residents on the proper method of disposing of garbage and recycling by their homes. He also suggested raising the fines for illegal dumping.
“The city can make a mint going down Myrtle Avenue,” he said. “They put everything” in the public garbage cans.
Underpass project
Community Board 5 Chairperson Vincent Arcuri, who is one of the founding members of 104COP, provided some details about the ongoing reconstruction of the Cooper Avenue underpass project as well as a related one-way street conversion.
Currently in the first phase of the project, the $5.7 million project is expected to take up to 18 months to complete. Crews are currently working on the southern wall (adjacent to the eastbound lane) and will work on the northern wall once it is finished.
The project calls for the removal and replacement of will scrape off and replace approximately three inches of each retaining wall, Arcuri noted. The parapet walls will be replaced with new concrete between three and six inches thick and topped with metal fencing and lampposts.
Sidewalks on both sides of Cooper Avenue will be widened to allow for safer passage for both pedestrians and bicyclists alike, as previously reported.
Arcuri took issue with the posted “pedestrian detour” for the first phase of the project, which directs pedestrians heading eastbound from Glendale to walk along the sidewalk of Cooper Avenue’s westbound side, then enter a staircase leading to the service road on the Middle Village side of the underpass.
“The northern staircase has been broken, damaged and unlit for years, and they (the Department of Transportation) don’t seem to understand that it’s a problem,” he said. “They need to clean, fix, light and secure it.”
Though the project has much support from the community, residents living on 74th Street between 78th and Cooper avenues have opposed the DOT’s plan to change the oneway street from southbound to northbound. Arcuri explained that the DOT believes the change will help protect students walking to P.S./I.S. 119 by eliminating turns at the corner of Cooper Avenue and 74th Street.
The change will also allow for school buses to drop off children at P.S./I.S. 119 from the right side of the street; currently, the drop off point is located a block east on 75th Street, and students must cross in front of the bus in order to reach the school.
Helping pantries
Kotnik thanked patrol members who donated non-perishable food items to 104COP’s recent food drives benefiting local pantries in the area. The most recent effort on Jan. 31 provided scores of items to the pantry operated by St. Stanislaus Church in Maspeth.
“Just as every other food pantry throughout the city, they don’t have enough,” he said. “The cupboards are getting empty. There are hungry people in our precinct and in our city and we’re going to try and help them out.”
The patrol plans to conduct another food drive on Feb. 28 to assist a food pantry in the Middle Village area.
Kotnik also thanked volunteers who have been taking part in special patrols to combat spikes in crime in various areas of the 104th Precinct’s confines. He credited their efforts for helping to bring about “a dramatic drop in crime in some places-if it existed at all.”
Other news
Speaking on behalf of Assemblyman Mike Miller, Dorie Figliola announced that the legislator and State Sen. Joseph Addabbo will be sponsoring a recycling drive on Sunday, Apr. 15, at the Forest Park Bandshell. Miller’s office in Woodhaven will also host a blood drive on Apr. 28. For details, call 1-718-805-0950.
Dori Pliska, a representative of City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, noted that Our Lady of Hope School in Middle Village is hosting a bone marrow donor drive on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. The drive aims to find a match for six-year-old Colin Flood, who is battling leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant.
The next Glendale/104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday night, Mar. 8, at 8 p.m. at St. Pancras Pfeifer Hall, located at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and 68th Street. For more information, call 1-718-497-1500.
