By Gabriel Rom
The Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Ambulance Corps is running out of options.
In 2013 the group, a community stalwart for over 50 years, was forced to vacate its headquarters due to a neighboring building’s collapsed roof. That building’s roof has not been repaired, and as a result, the ambulance corps remains without a home to call its own.
At August’s Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association monthly meeting, state Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven) insisted that if repairs are not soon made to the adjacent building and to the corps’ headquarters by November, the building will lose its insurance.
In April 2013, a rainstorm caused the roof to collapse at 78-19 Jamaica Ave., which is owned by George Kochabe. A snowstorm that winter caused the collapse of a wall shared by the two buildings. The ambulance corps building cannot be repaired until the building next door is fixed.
As a result of the disrepair, the main tenant of the building, the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Senior Center, was forced to vacate the building, leaving the ambulance corps without one of its primary sources of revenue — some $2,500 a month in rental income.
Earlier this year, the ambulance corps indicated that, after a Queens Supreme Court judge granted another construction extension to Kochabe, the owner of the building next door, they would likely have to cease operating.
As the building’s quality rapidly declines and legal extensions continue to be granted to Kochabe, time for the corps is running out.
Nevertheless, at the block association meeting, community leaders said they would continue to try and find a solution with the ambulance corps.
“We need input from the ambulance corps. If you have people who are willing to help you, you have to stay in constant communication, you can’t let weeks, months, go by without communicating,” said Martin Colberg, the association president.
The WRBA has filed a $13 million lawsuit against Kochabe for lost revneues.
“We need to reopen the lines of communication with everyone so we can get the ball rolling again. It’s the only way we’re going to get this resolved,” added Colberg.
Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@
