NOVEMBER 2021 I BOROMAG.COM 15
EXPLORE YOUR BORO
LIBRARIES: THE NEW HOT SPOTS
Photo via Getty Images
Queens Public Library President
and CEO Dennis Walcott announced
on Thursday, Oct. 21, that
QPL will be supplying more than
255 internet-enabled hot spots for
visitors who don’t have internet access
at home at four library branches
in underserved communities.
QPL’s Astoria, Long Island City,
Lefrak City and South Jamaica branches will now have Wi-Fi hot
spots thanks to Sterling National Bank, National Grid and the
Thomas & Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation for their generous
donations totaling $85,000 to the library.
The donated fundings were secured as part of QPL’s broader
goal to grow its supply of internet-enabled hot spots. Since,
in the past, many of the loaned hot spots either got lost or
damaged, the devices will now be checked out for one month
and renewed up to three times.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the
need for reliable home internet access for so many individuals
and families in Queens and elsewhere in New York City, and
it is critical to position the library to lend hot spots and other
technology to them,” Walcott said. “We are extremely grateful to
Sterling National Bank, National Grid and the Thomas & Jeanne
Elmezzi Private Foundation for their partnership in addressing
the digital divide in our communities.”
Founded about 125 years ago, Queens Public Library is one of
the three public library systems serving the city of New York and
the largest and busiest public library system in the United States.
This independent, nonprofit organization offers free access
to over 5 million books and other materials in many different
languages, along with technology and digital resources, and
more than 80,000 educational, cultural and civic programs.
The library has 66 locations across Queens, which include
branch libraries, a central library, seven adult learning centers, a
technology center and two teen centers.
In 2019, QPL provided nearly 3 million free computer sessions
and attracted over 11 million visitors. Even during the height
of the pandemic, thousands of people sat outside the closed
library buildings to be able to catch a Wi-Fi signal. From March
2020 to May 2021, the library recorded 498,810 Wi-Fi sessions.
Sterling National Bank made a donation of $50,000 for
18 laptops and 100 hot spots in the QPL Lefrak City location,
which is now temporarily closed due to the damages done by
Hurricane Ida. To meet the demand for computer and internet
service, QPL distributed the loaning devices at a special event
on Oct. 21 outside of the library, located at 98-30 57th Ave.
The National Grid donated $25,000 for 75 hot spots, mainly
targeted at customers participating in workforce development
programs at the South Jamaica Library.
The Thomas & Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation gave
a $10,000 donation for 30 hot spots to be loaned out by the
Astoria and Long Island City branches.
“The Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation has
been a long-term supporter of Queens Public Library and its
programming,” said Pooja Joshi O’Hanlon, executive director
of The Elmezzi Foundation. “The COVID-19 pandemic has
heightened the need for many services, supports and resources
for residents in western Queens, access to technology being
one of them. The hot spots provided by Queens Public Library
will go a long way towards alleviating some of this.”
Legends of LIC
True Character
BY GREATER ASTORIA
HISTORICAL SOCIETY There is a grave in Calvary Cemetery
of a Michael Degnon, son of two
immigrant parents who migrated to
United States from Ireland during
the time of the famine in the mid-
1800s. It is surrounded by the graves of his wife and children.
Not more than a dozen blocks away, you can find his namesake:
a large industrial park called Degnon Terminal. It’s home to a great
series of loft buildings that line Thomson Avenue, the grandest being
the former Sunshine Bakery, which was once the world’s largest.
We know it as LaGuardia Community College.
This is the story of Michael Degnon.
He was described as broadly built and well over six feet tall.
He loved work and it seemed his capacity for it was unlimited.
Known for his good temper, tact and genial manners, he inspired
intense loyalty of his employees.
He was also a very taciturn man who did not like to talk about
himself, but a reporter for The New York Times finally tracked him
down for an interview: “I was born in Geneva, near Cleveland,
Ohio, in 1857,” he began. “My father died when I was a child,
and I lived with my mother on the farm and attended the public
schools till I was 18 years old.
“Then I started to work on a railroad. Before I was 22, I did all sorts
of work, from laborer up to superintendent of construction. As a contractor,
I've done jobs for a dozen railroads in different states, among
them the New York, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri — among others.”
In New York, he worked on the Williamsburg Bridge, the Long
Island Rail Road Terminal in Brooklyn, and the subway in lower
Manhattan, where he built tunnels through both quicksand and
bedrock and where streets above him were filled with traffic. He
had to thread tunnels though a forest of underground obstructions:
building foundations, pipe lines, elevated railroad supports
and sewers, for example.
He told the reporter that within the next year (1910) he expected
to complete contracts worth $10 million (about a third of a
trillion dollars in today’s currency).
His final major project, the Degnon Terminal and Realty Company,
was incorporated in 1905 with plans that were both practical and ambitious.
The terminal's boundaries were the Long Island-Pennsylvania
rail yards in Sunnyside on the west, Thomson Avenue on the north
and Van Dam Street on the east: roughly 30 city blocks or 125 acres.
The company dredged Dutch Kills for water access, and built a series
of superblock factory buildings that were sold or leased to companies
including American Chicle, Packard Motors, Loose-Wiles Sunshine
Biscuit Co., White Motor Company and American Ever Ready.
Degnon would go on to building rail tunnels under the East River
and had a hand in developing Queens Plaza.
But despite all his accomplishments, he took his greatest personal
pride not in engineering feats, but in a 25-year record of finishing every
project on time, within budget and with no lawsuits or litigation.
And that, more that sweeping civic projects or great buildings,
speaks of a person’s true character.
BY BENEDETTA TOMMASELLI
Greater Astoria Historical Society
44-02 23RD ST. #219
LONG ISLAND CITY, NY 11101
INFO@ASTORIALIC.ORG / WWW.ASTORIALIC.ORG
718-278-0700
Photo courtesy of Greater Astoria
Historical Society
Queens Public Library grants accessible Wi-Fi hot spots to
help bridge the digital divide in underserved communities
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