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The Great Woodhaven Yard Sale Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Ed Wendell on February 22, 2023

By Ed Wendell

projectwoodhaven@gmail.com

 

WRBA President Martin Colberg made the rounds thanking all of the participants in last year’s Great Woodhaven Yard Sale, a community-wide yard sale that will take place this weekend on Saturday June 10th and Sunday June 11th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To register, email thegreatwoodhavenyardsale@gmail.com or call the WRBA at 718-296-3735 and leave your name and contact information.

The Great Woodhaven Yard Sale is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year and it looks like it will be the biggest one yet. Sponsored by the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association (WRBA) since 2013, the Great Woodhaven Yard Sale (GWYS) is a coordinated effort to all have a community-wide yard sale on the same date.

So instead of you having your yard sale one weekend, your neighbors having theirs the next weekend, and the people across the street having theirs next month – the idea is to have all your yard sales on the same day. And since all your locations will be heavily advertised both inside and outside of Woodhaven, you will see a big increase in people visiting your sale

And for the first time, this year’s GWYS has been expanded to a 2-day event.

“There’s been a drumbeat the last few years of the event that setting up for just one day was kind of inefficient for participants,” says Vance Barbour, Director and Event Coordinator of the WRBA. And so, this year’s Great Woodhaven Yard Sale will take place on Saturday June 10th and Sunday June 11th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Barbour says that the WRBA is expanding their marketing of the GWYS to bring in more shoppers. “For the first event in 2013 we only had a tri-fold brochure that we handed out at WRBA Town Hall meetings and at the subway stations on Jamaica Avenue.”

“We now have social media presence on Facebook and Twitter, we place free and paid advertisements on places like Craig’s List New York and Facebook, and issue a press release to 32 local and regional news organizations. This year for the first time we will be listing the event on local and regional yard/garage sale websites,” he says.

To register for the 2023 Great Woodhaven Yard Sale email thegreatwoodhavenyardsale@gmail.com or call the WRBA at 718-296-3735 and leave your name and contact information. And for the first time ever, the WRBA is opening up participation to homes outside the 11421 Zip Code.

“Over the years we have had a number of calls from residents of Richmond Hill and Ozone Park who wanted to participate in the event, but we had to turn them away due to logistics,” Barbour explained.

“Placing them on The Map might make The Map illegible for participants who counted on it to find participating households. For the last two events we began attaching a list of household addresses to the map, which frees us up to accept households from our neighboring communities. While we will not be actively soliciting neighboring community households, we will not be turning them away either.”

One of the keys to making your yard sale successful is to get your neighbors involved. When the maps are distributed, people will tend to look for clusters so that when they visit one block they’ll have several yard sales to visit.

Once you sign up, give the information to your neighbors and ask them to pass along to their neighbors that they know. Even a few houses at the end of the block, or even around the corner, will help drive extra traffic to your doorstep.

Yard sales are a summer tradition around Woodhaven and it’s nice that there’s always a few here and there almost every weekend. But the Great Woodhaven Yard Sale is a terrific event, typically attracting more than 100 households and hundreds and hundreds of shoppers, from all around Queens

One year, we ran into a guy who had his arms full of stuff he’d bought at yard sales in Woodhaven. He was heading home to Glendale to drop off what he’d bought and rushing back to hit the rest of the houses on the map.

Make sure you get your household on the map so it’s a bunch of your stuff in people’s arms, taking it away to their home while leaving cash in the palm of your hand.

Now you know why they call the Woodhaven Yard Sale Great!

One Big Family, the FDNY Proves That It Never Forgets.

glendaleregstg on February 8, 2023

By Ed Wendell

The family of Lt. James Griffin gather in front of the Ozone Park firehouse 100 years after the accident that took his life and the lives of 2 other firefighters, John Dunne and Michael Hanley.

Sometimes when you’re doing research you don’t know what you’re going to find or where it will lead. In late December, I spent a few nights going through all of the Leader-Observers from early 1923, looking for headlines to share with our members 100 years later.

One headline, about a terrible crash on February 6th, 1923, really shook me. A truck carrying three firemen from Ozone Park was struck by a Long Island Railroad express train at the intersection of Atlantic and Rockaway.

I had never heard of this tragic accident and soon temporarily abandoned the search into all things 1923 and began to focus solely on this incident and the lives of the 3 firemen, Lt. James Griffin, and Firemen John Dunne and Michael Hanley.

The details were so very sad and tragic. Just before 6 p.m. on February 6th 1923, during a heavy snowstorm, Truck 142 in Ozone Park received a call about a fire on Crescent Street.

They made their way out into the storm and when they got to the intersection of Rockaway and Atlantic, they had to wait as the LIRR workers held the local train and then raised the gate for them to pass. Then out of the snowstorm came an express train roaring from Jamaica towards Brooklyn.

The crash was horrific, dragging the wreckage hundreds of yards down Atlantic Avenue. People came running from their homes to help. Two of the firefighters, John Dunne and Michael Hanley, had been killed instantly. Lt. Griffin had hit an electrified line and though he initially survived and put up a good fight, he would pass the next day.

Together, they left 3 wives and 11 children.

And that was that. Or so I thought. I gave a Zoom presentation and shared the details of the accident. But it seemed such a shame that no one had heard about this and no one knew the names of these three heroes.

So we decided to do a special presentation on the 100th anniversary of the crash, so we would be assured that they were remembered. We found pictures of 2 of the firefighters’ tombstones online and went to the cemetery to get pictures of the third.

And when I got home, the story changed dramatically. There was an email waiting for me from a man named Brian Fitzgerald, the great-grandson of Lt. James Griffin. He had read an article in this newspaper and reached out to tell me about a ceremony they had planned for over a year. In fact, they had ordered a plaque to commemorate the sacrifice that these 3 heroes made.

This had been in the works for quite a while and Mr. Fitzgerald had done the legwork and tracked down living descendants of Firefighter Dunne, who lived nearby and would be at the ceremony.

They hadn’t been forgotten at all. 100 years later, these men were still remembered, not only by their descendants, but by the FDNY.

I should have known better. The FDNY never forgets their heroes.

And so we found ourselves at a beautiful ceremony at Engine 285 / Ladder 142 on 98th Street in Ozone Park, in the very same station house where these left on their fateful last call 100 years before.

And there were a lot of members of the Griffin family, with grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even a few great-great grandchildren. Lt. Griffin’s son served in the FDNY and his many descendants have flourished and have made him proud.

Firefighter John Dunne’s 2 great-grandchildren were there and spoke about how they knew very little about this accident until Brian Fitzgerald called and how this has impacted their lives, and how it brought them closer to the hero in their family.

Sadly, firefighter Hanley had no living descendants but he was not without family in attendance on Sunday. That is because everyone was family at this gathering. And that’s what it is like to be a member of the FDNY; being part of one big giant family.

And they proved yet again that they always honor and never forget those that went before them. In the back of E285 / L142 there is a beautiful tribute to all the brave firefighters they have lost in the line of duty over the years, and that duty is to protect and watch over us.

From that fateful evening 100 years ago, right through today, that firehouse has never been empty. It’s been on call, just like every other firehouse in New York City, every second of every day and will continue to do so forever.

God bless the souls of Lt. James Griffin, and Firemen John Dunne and Michael Hanley and every other firefighter who made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty; may they rest in eternal peace.

Exclusive: One-on-One with Larry Grubler of TSINY

Alicia Venter on February 8, 2023

By Alicia Venter

aventer@queensledger.com

“Transitional Services is a not-for-profit mental health agency that provides both residential and outpatient services to anybody over the age of 18 who has a psychiatric diagnosis,” Larry Grubler recited, as if he had said the line a hundred times before.

He likely has — Transitional Services for New York (TSINY) works to make Queens safer for its struggling locals, not for the community’s praise and accolades.

With facilities throughout the borough and in the Bronx, TSINY, based in Whitestone, provides a continuum of rehabilitative services with a community-based approach to those recovering from mental illness.

Grubler has been the CEO of TSINY since 2007 and with the agency for a total of 31 years.

He has taken upon himself to expand the facilities and assets by which his organization can best support some of Queens’ most vulnerable.

What exactly do these rehabilitative services entail?

To Grubler, who attended St. John’s University for his masters degree and received his doctorate from Southern California University, this means that individuals have constant access to care at their own pace and need level.

The whole concept of TSINY — which has a staff of approximately 400 people — is to transition, avoiding a “one size fits all” mentality regarding psychiatric treatment.

“In the housing units, for instance, we have all the housing from supervised living settings for people that need staff available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to teach them the skills that they need to function out in the community…so then we can go from there, and they would transition out to an apartment,” Grubler said in an interview.

TSINY offers housing to over 600 individuals, with a variety of housing situations.

The supervised community residence programs, for instance, consist of single and shared living quarters, with amenities including exercise rooms, libraries, kitchens and dining facilities.

The different buildings, programs and apartments offer a range of treatments to facilitate the eventual adjustment by their patients into the community.

Their buildings offer courtyard space and rooftop access, as to provide a safe way for the patients to socially interact with one another.

There are currently two projects under development in Jamaica, as well as two housing facilities already there, called the Delson and Amelie’s. The additional facilities are expected to be completed in 2024.

Since he became CEO, the nonprofit’s assets have grown from $12 million to nearly $100 million, largely due to the development of their residential buildings and other day facilities.

Starting with a budget of $250,000, they now have $40 million to continue with projects to meet the continually shifting needs of people with mental illness.

“There’s a lot of needs out there, and there’s been a lot of growth in the mental health field,” Grubler said. “I’ve got a really good team of people that helps support that growth. We’re constantly writing proposals to do more — to do better.”

The difference between homeless shelters and the supportive housing provided by TSINY, Grubler described, is the on-site supportive services to people living in the buildings with psychiatric disabilities.

“There’s too many people that are living in a homeless shelter to really give them the individual attention that they need to be rehabilitated… 600 people living in a building, that’s hard.”

In the residential facilities, TSINY teaches skills that residents need in order to function in the community, including how to cook, clean, budget, take medication, to do laundry, and other things “you and I might take for granted,” Grubler detailed.

“Because of the illness, which usually starts between the ages of 18 to 24, [such as] the schizophrenia, major depression and things of that nature, they don’t usually get that opportunity to learn those skills as effectively and practice them,” Grubler said. It’s TSINY’s job to step in and provide what they can to develop those necessary skills.

A crucial part of this development is job training — TSINY offers job resume building courses and on site-job support. They also have an “affirmative business,” called Turn the Page.

This used bookstore — funded by the city — allows residents to maintain a job for approximately three months to learn work skills.

Through this transitioning business model, patients are able to earn work experience and garner a sense of pride in their work abilities.

There are a number of success stories garnered from this affirmative business model, Grubler detailed, including a woman who now works on the Intrepid.

“Because of the stigma of mental illness, people don’t usually want people who are mentally ill having a program in their neighborhoods,” he said. “But with [Turn the Page], other community boards, other communities have said, ‘please open one near us.’”

Grubler would be willing to open another affirmative business, he said, with the proper funding.

Through Grubler’s leadership, TSINY continues to grow, serving Queens’ vulnerable in a community-based supportive way.

For more information on TSINY, visit www.tsiny.org.

Forest Park: 128 Years of Beauty and History

glendaleregstg on February 8, 2023

By Ed Wendell

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of giving a presentation on the history of Forest Park to a large group of volunteers who help maintain and beautify our park, which is now entering its 128th year. For a combination of beauty and history in Woodhaven, you’d be hard pressed to beat Forest Park.

Although much of Forest Park’s 538 acres consists of natural woodland, the park itself was planned and designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Originally envisioned as one giant, continuous park stretching from Brooklyn all the way to Jamaica (and originally called Brooklyn Forest), changes in population and the resulting development reduced the scope of that plan.

A nine-hole golf course was opened to the public and by 1905, the popularity of the golf course would prompt it to expand to 18 holes, originally stretching south all the way to Ashland Avenue, where residential homes marked the start of Woodhaven proper.

As part of the expansion, a Dutch Colonial golf clubhouse was built on the course in 1905 by the architectural firm of Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell, who also designed the landmark Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower in Brooklyn.

The golf course is still active and the beautiful clubhouse today is called Oak Ridge and serves as the home of the Forest Park Administration offices.

If you go east from the old clubhouse, you’ll eventually reach the Seuffert Bandshell (pronounced Soy-fert), a near 100-year old bandstand named after bandleader George Seuffert Sr.

For many years, Seuffert and his band entertained people at the bandshell and it was officially named in his honor in 1979.

A little further along, you’ll come across the Forest Park Carousel, which was designated as a landmark by the City of New York ten years ago, in 2013.

Artistically, the Forest Park Carousel is particularly notable as it was the handiwork of the legendary master carver Daniel Muller. Muller came to the United States from Germany as a child in the 1880s and as a young man he and his brother worked for Gustav Dentzel, a renowned carousel builder in his own right.

Dentzel’s father built carousels back in Germany going back to the mid-18th century. Muller took advantage of the opportunity to learn all of these old-world skills from Dentzel and blended it with his own realistic style to carve out a name for himself and in 1903, D.C. Muller and Bro. Company was founded.

Muller’s carvings were notable not only for being very beautiful and realistic; in some cases the carvings were militaristic, with horses sporting bugles, swords and canteens.

Over 14 years, D.C. Muller and Bro. created over a dozen carousels but, sadly, today only two remain: one in Cedar Point, Ohio, and ours right here in Forest Park.

The Forest Park Carousel contains three rows of carvings; the outer row contains 13 standing horses, three menagerie animals and two chariots. The inner two rows each contain 18 jumping horses (for a total of 36).

While the Forest Park Carousel is often referred to as a Muller carousel, you will also find a few carvings from Dentzel and Charles Carmel, another notable carousel artist of the same era, on the inner two rows.

Not far from the carousel you will find one of the most beautiful spots in New York City, the Greenhouse at Forest Park, which was designed by legendary greenhouse builders Lord & Burnham, who also built the New York Botanical Garden, the United States Botanic Garden in Washington D.C., and the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.

Flowers and plants throughout parks in Queens and Brooklyn are grown right here, as they have been for over 100 years.

And if you continue walking east you will cross Woodhaven Boulevard and reach Victory Field, a large recreation complex with baseball fields, a running track, and a handball court. Victory Field was named after the Unknown Soldier of World War 1.

Today the track portion of Victory Field is named after longtime Woodhaven Assemblyman, the legendary Frederick D. Schmidt.

Forest Park is full of beauty, but it is also full of history and visitors to the park 100 years ago would be pleasantly surprised to see so much of their history preserved and beloved by the current residents of Woodhaven and the many volunteers that tend to the park.

 

Exclusive: 1-year-interview with Ariola

glendaleregstg on February 8, 2023

By Matthew Fischetti

mfischetti@queensledger.com

Last year, Joann Ariola comfortably sailed to victory to represent City Council District 32 – which stretches from Belle Harbor up to Southeast Queens nabes like Howard Beach, Ozone Park and Woodhaven.

The Queens Republican bested Democratic candidate Felicia Singh, capturing over 67 percent of the vote in a district previously represented by fellow Republican Eric Ulrich since 2009.

Although she was just elected to her first term last year: Ariola has been a long time presence in the community. A lifelong resident of the district, Ariola, 64, previously served the president of the Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic Association and as the Chairwoman of the Queens Republican Party.

Our paper dedicated to catch up with Ariola to discuss her first year in office as well as discuss upcoming initiatives.

“What surprised me most was [after my first year] how well, a body of 51 people who come from different backgrounds and ideologies can really pull together to make a better city,” Ariola said in a recent Zoom interview.

While Ariola is one of a handful of Republicans in the Democrat denominated city council, she said that she often takes a bipartisan approach to legislating, citing her position on the Common Sense Caucus – a group of conservative and center-leaning legislators, which include registered Democrats like Bob Holden and Kalman Yeger.

In her first year in office, Ariola has been the first primary sponsor of five pieces of legislation and two resolutions. One of Ariola’s bills, a law that requires the Fire Department to survey firehouses on whether they have gender specific bathrooms for female firefighters, was passed by the council and signed by the Mayor last year.

“And the mayor has already signed that into law and you know, that had widespread bipartisan support. Why? because it’s common sense. That’s how I approach things,” Ariola said.

Ariola also wrote a bill that would create an office of Marine Debris Disposal and Vessel Surrendering, which would be responsible for coordinating between federal, state and local authorities to remove debris from New York City’s shores; find ways to recycle and reuse the material; as well as developing new practices to prevent the act.

While the bill is still in committee, it has been sponsored by a majority of the council. Ariola told BQE Media that she expects the bill to pass before the end of February.

“We cannot win in this district, a Republican cannot win without Democrat and Independent voters,” Ariola said, who represents a district where over 50 percent of voters are registered Democrats.

“I ran on three major points to the platform: public safety, quality of life and education. Those are the three top subjects when we were knocking on doors – that’s what people cared about most,” she continued. “And that resonated with the voters. It didn’t matter their background – any type of ethnic background, religious background, or enrollment in a party.”

In respect to quality of life issues, Ariola said she has tackled the issue by funding additional cleanups in both commercial districts and residential streets in the neighborhood. While the issue has not fully been addressed, she said the city is in the procurement phases to get cameras to monitor chronic dumping areas throughout the district. She also emphasized working with the Queens Economic Development Program to clean up graffiti in the district.

While 2022 issues largely centered around public safety, Ariola said that quality of life issues and the economy. Specifically, Ariola said that she is looking into taxes and contributing reasons to why New Yorkers are leaving for other states.

Ariola exclusively told BQE Media that she will be sponsoring legislation that would require Deliveristas to have to register their vehicles and have them insured.

While Ariola is repping many of the same neighborhoods as previous years, her district lines have added slivers of Glendale and Woodhaven while losing parts of Ozone Park.

While Ariola hasn’t represented Glendale before, she said one of the local issues she would focus on would be monitoring the Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center, which has drawn the ire of locals.

“I will work as hard for the Glendale homeless shelter, the one that is just across the border in Woodhaven as as I do for the one in Rockaway to make sure that the people who are running the shelters are held accountable for their their population, and that their population is not an at risk population for our host community,” said Ariola.

In response to a question about representing the new areas, Ariola noted that despite being in different nabes, her constituents have similar issues across the district.

“I realized that there are some areas that are more specific in their issues than others, but they don’t want the loud noise from cars,” she said. “So it’s noise complaints. It’s garbage complaints. It’s the fact that construction may be being done on a school.”

Three Years Later, Memories of Neir’s Salvation

glendaleregstg on January 18, 2023

The jubilant scene outside Neir’s after it had been announced that the historic tavern had received a reprieve.

By Ed Wendell
What if you went to a funeral but the corpse didn’t show up? That’s what it was like at Neir’s Tavern, three years ago last week, when it rose triumphantly from its deathbed to become the toast of the town.
In the hours and days after the news broke that Neir’s was closing after 190 years of service, people began suggesting ways that this historic location could be saved.
Ideas came forth ranging from calling Martin Scorsese, who directed “Goodfellas” or Robert De Niro, who starred in it, to pulling together a large pool of investors to donate $1,000 each to make a down payment on the building.
But the problem that could not be solved in 10 years now needed to be solved in just a few days, before Sunday.
And the way the eulogies were pouring in, it seemed like Sunday was going to come and go without a resolution. People were leaving heartfelt messages of grief. The closest nearby bar, Geordie’s, posted a beautiful message of support for Neir’s owner Loy Gordon.
But as it turned out, there was a solution in the works, and the ball had gotten rolling on that nearly a year earlier when Assemblyman Mike Miller began a dialogue with Tom Grech, Executive Director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce (QCC).
With just days to go, Mike and Tom were able to pull together a meeting with the building’s owner and as Mr. Grech joked later, he locked the door to the meeting room and said no one was allowed to leave until they struck a deal.
The Mayor’s Office got involved after Loy called into a radio show and asked Mayor de Blasio for help. And Councilman Bob Holden was at the table, offering aid and support to this beloved historic location within his district.
And once everyone got together, a deal was reached and the next few hours were bedlam.
I was in the doctor’s office for a routine checkup. Even in the waiting room, the nurses were talking about the impending closure of Neir’s, I couldn’t get away from it. And while I was waiting in the doctor’s office, my phone rang.
It was Assemblyman Miller. The connection was bad and every time he started to tell me the good news, the connection would cut out. Finally, when we had a 10-second window of clear connection Mike gave me the good news, but told me to keep quiet, that it would be announced later.
We stopped by Neir’s which was solidly packed with revelers from around the city who had seen the news and came out to say farewell. For many, it was their first trip to this historic treasure.
Other people came from long distances to say farewell, including one gentleman who drove from Pennsylvania just to have a beer. And locals were wandering over all afternoon, many as they often do, to kick off the weekend at their favorite gathering spot.
We were surrounded by people who had come to see a funeral, and yet this good news was bursting to be let free.
It was the reporters who broke the news by asking those they were interviewing how they felt about it being saved. Quickly, word began to spread, tears of sadness turned to tears of joy. Hugs of comfort turned into hugs of relief and celebration.
Mayor de Blasio came out to Woodhaven and stood behind the bar and made it official. It was a remarkable night for this community.
There is a very old saying that success has a thousand parents but failure is an orphan. When it came to saving Neir’s, this old saying was very apt.
Every person who came to Neir’s, for lunch or for an evening out; each person who shared news stories about the place, who told friends or relatives about it, were all part of a 10-year campaign to get the city to stand up and recognize this historic location. And though it had been saved, it would soon face the same dangerous fight that doomed many bars and restaurants in New York City: Covid-19.
And yet it survived.
It survived thanks to every person who ordered out. It survived thanks to every person who sat outside in frigid temps to eat dinner.
Like a cat with many lives, Neir’s lives on, now just 6 years from what will be a remarkable 200th birthday party. Look forward to seeing you all there!

The scene from inside Neir’s while Mayor de Blasio came to announce the good news. We were way at the back and couldn’t see or hear anything, but word of the good news had already spread.

S:US holds MLK Food Drive in South Ozone Park

Alicia Venter on January 18, 2023

By: Alicia Venter

aventer@queensledger.com

 

Services of the Underserved (S:US) hosted a food drive in South Ozone Park this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, volunteering to collect over 50 bags of nonperishable goods, fruits and vegetables for families within their supported behavioral health housing units in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Approximately 15 volunteers — many workers of S:US who were using their day off to provide this service — could be seen in the basement of the South Ozone Park S:US center bagging food in whatever bag they could find.

Planning to collect food to provide 40 families with food, they soon realized that the food collected that week surpassed that number.

With only 40 bags with the S:US logo brought to the event, the volunteers got creative. Foodtown bags, Target bags and boxes were quickly found within the center to be used collecting food.

Within the hour of the food drive starting, over 50 bags — or boxes — could be seen collected by the volunteers. Over 1,000 pounds of food and other items were collected and distributed to families served at two supportive housing programs the same day.

S:US is “all about creating opportunities for folks who are having challenges,” said S:US CEO Jorge R. Petit at the collection Monday, where he was helping in the collection. “We provide an array of services that actually help people on their road to recovery and we’re part of their journey to lead lives that are full of purpose.”

Believing in service, Petit described S:US as a platform for which people can provide others with that which they take for granted: food, security and a roof over their head.

There are numerous opportunities to get involved with S:US, including volunteering and donation. Among the different ways people can get involved include working at urban farms, teaching someone how to search for a job and even lead a yoga class.

“We really look at every day [as] doing a service for people,” said Monica Santos, Chief Program Officer at SUS, who was among the volunteers on Monday. “We help New Yorkers all over the city — ones with mental illness, behavioral health needs, homeless, veterans… and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

The Ozone Park Center, located at ​​115-70 Lefferts Blvd, is a day program, with community residences in the area. People with developmental disabilities come during the day, and among the services provided by the location are two food fridges and a lending library.

“At the heart of what we do at S:US is a firm commitment to righting the disparities caused by racial discrimination, bias and health inequity and eradicating these within our practices and programs to help us move towards true social justice,” the S:US website stated.

As stated on their website, the mission of S:US is to “drive scalable solutions to transform the lives of people with disabilities, people in poverty and people facing homelessness: solutions that contribute to righting societal imbalances.”

For more information on the services provided by S:US, visit www.sus.org/.

 

“Science in a Box” kits delivered to District 29

Alicia Venter on January 18, 2023

New York City Council Member Lynn Schulman delivers materials to PS54. Photo Credit: Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit

By Alicia Venter

aventer@queensledger.com

 

600 STEM Hydroponic Kits, also known as “Science in a Box” kits, were distributed to three elementary schools in Southeast Queens on Friday, Jan. 13.

The schools that received the kits include PS 54, The Hillside School; PS 99, The Kew Gardens School; and PS 144, The Col. Jeromus Remsen School in Forest Hills.

The hydroponic kits were provided by NY Sun Works — a non-profit organization that builds innovative science labs in urban schools — in partnership with local council member Lynn Schulman.

The kits came equipped with a 10-lesson climate and science curriculum meant to enable students, with a teacher’s guidance, to grow, study and run investigations with plants.

They are designed to expose students to hydroponic farming technology on a miniature, hands-on level.

“Our kids only get one chance at a good education. That is why I am thrilled to partner with New York Sun Works to deliver 600 hydroponic STEM kits to local schools throughout Council District 29,” said Schulman in a press release. “These kits will be paired with a 10-lesson curriculum that teaches students the importance of sustainability and urban agriculture while enhancing their observation and data collection skills. I look forward to seeing the final results from this unique and vital life lesson program.”

The schools also received the Discovering Sustainability Science curriculum, and teachers are provided the tools to tailor the curriculum to address the needs of the students.

The program will reach more than 1000 elementary-age students at the three schools, all located in the 29th Council District that Schulman represents.

“We are excited to engage young learners in plant biology by delivering hundreds of interactive and innovative STEM kits in Queens with Council Member Lynn Schulman,” said Manuela Zamora, NY Sun Works Executive Director in a press release. “We are fully committed to fostering the love for science to every New York City public school student and these kits are an incredible introduction to hydroponic farming that teach climate and the science of sustainability.”

NY Sun Works first introduced the ‘Science in a Box’ Hydroponic Kit program in September 2020. More than 5,000 kits were distributed last year, for both classroom and at-home learning.

In a 2021 study conducted by social science research organization Knology, the kits and curriculum “embody innovation, flexibility, hands-on learning, and critical thinking.

For more information on NY Sun Works, visit nysunworks.org/.

 

Two sentenced for S. Richmond Hill, Ozone Park Slayings

Alicia Venter on January 13, 2023

By Alicia Venter

aventer@queensledger.com

 

Two men have been sentenced in connection with four fatal shootings that took place in South Richmond Hill and Ozone Park between 2015 and 2018, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office on Jan. 13.

Richard Davenport, 46, of 139th St. in Jamaica, and Neville Brown, 42, of 197th Street in Hollis, pleaded guilty in November to two counts of manslaughter in the first degree. They each pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a third fatal shooting, and Davenport pled guilty to manslaughter in a fourth fatal shooting.

The latest crime took place on Jan. 16, 2018, with security camera footage showing Davenport exit a Mercedes Benz on 105th St. near 135th Ave. in South Richmond Hill around 9:30 p.m. and approaching Omaree Morrison, 19, while he was walking along 135th Avenue. The video footage shows Davenport fatally shoot Morrison, the charges claim.

A few weeks prior, on Dec. 19, 2017, the charges claim that Brown was seen driving the same Mercedes Benz at approximately 3 a.m. with Davenport in the passenger side front seat. Together, they drove past a Cadillac Escalade parked on 125th St. and Atlantic Ave. in South Richmond Hill numerous times.

Security camera footage captured the Mercedes Benz parking, the defendants exiting the vehicle, approaching the Cadillac from both sides and Davenport firing several times into the vehicle.

Dail Ramessar, 21, was struck in the car, and later died in the hospital. Davenport and Brown both fled in the Mercedes Benz.On July 15, 2016, the charges claim that Davenport approached the vehicle of Raaid Ali, 22, as he was sitting in the drivers seat in front of his residence at 107-60 114th Street in South Richmond Hill. He was shot by Davenport multiple times in the torso, fatally wounding him, at approximately 12:10 p.m., the charges claim, and Davenport fled in a vehicle driven by Brown.

The charges claim that the first murder took place on Oct. 4, 2015. The victim, Vickiram Ramlogan, 27, was shot multiple times while parked in front of his home at 111-21 120th Street, Ozone Park at around 8:15 p.m. by Davenport.

Davenport was sentenced a combined total of 29 years in prison — two consecutive 14.5 year sentences — and Brown was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“Two very dangerous men are going to prison for a long time and the streets of Queens will be safer as a result,” said District Attorney Melinda Katz in a statement. “My number one priority will continue to be getting illegal guns, and those who use them, off our streets.”

 

Ozone Park RBA selects new chairperson

Alicia Venter on January 11, 2023

By Alicia Venter

aventer@queensledger.com

 

The Ozone Park Resident Block Association (RBA) selected a new chairperson to grow their mission in supporting residents of southeast Queens in whatever quality of life issues they may face.

Brina Ciaramella, 42, is a third generation South Queens resident, currently living in Howard Beach. She has practiced residential real estate law for approximately 10 years, predominately in southeast Queens.

As the new chairperson, her responsibilities will include attending events and speaking on behalf of the organization and its mission.

“The responsibilities of the chairperson are like being an overall glue that’s there for everything… I would like to hear community members’ concerns,” Ciaramella said.

While the block association is already doing a terrific job, she says, she would love to see growth in effectively and immediately meeting community members’ when they come forward with concerns. 

“Reaching out to electeds and agencies — problem solving in a way that’s personalized,” she said. Providing a bridge between community members and the government, she said, is how the block association can best serve the Ozone Park residents.

“[It’s] a nice, local group that is a sounding board and a platform for community members to come and grieve their issues or just have a good time,” Ciaramella explained.

A major issue she will drive the RBA to continue tackling will be illegal commercial parking.

“We have a lot of people living in these houses because the cost of living has become so expensive. Whether people are sharing rent or sharing a mortgage, we are no longer living in a society where it’s easy for two people to take on these types of payments,” she explained. “There are more cars and people living in the home and that congests the streets. When you add on top of that illegal parking, it causes a quality of life issue… that’s on the forefront of what the block association is working on.”

Ciaramella describes southeast Queens as giving a small town feeling in the biggest city in the world. Its diversity provides the opportunity to celebrate a variety of cultures and ideologies that allow a comradery unlike any other. She takes the place of previous Ozone Park RBA Chairperson Jeanne Shannon.

First getting involved in community service around seven years ago with her children’s PTA, Ciaramella is involved in the Our Neighbors Civic Association of Ozone Park, the Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic and the Ozone Park Howard Beach Woodhaven Lions Club. The latter of these she has become increasingly involved in, as the organization works to provide services to primarily the senior population of South Queens.

“Our primary focus is the senior population but we really do it all,” Ciaramella said. “Wherever there’s a need to host a fundraiser, event, giveaway, food pantry or things of that nature, [we get involved].

She serves because, simply, it’s just in her.

“I just feel like I have something to give. I don’t have a ton of time. I don’t have a ton of money,” she said. “There have been times where I have shied away a little bit more, but I’m always pulled back into it naturally. It’s just within me to want to serve.”

The Ozone Park RBA manages a Facebook page with over 25,000 members, providing newsworthy information directly to residents. 

Ciaramella recieving the Our Neighbors Civic Association of Ozone Park 2022 Woman of the Year award.

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