FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com APRIL 18, 2013 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11 LAUGHS ON BELL BY MELISSA CHAN AND ADJANI SHAH mchan@queenscourier.com At a former Bayside pizzeria, customers are coming for laughs instead of slices. Cascarino’s closed its 39-17 Bell Boulevard restaurant in January for economic reasons and has only offered catering and delivery services since. Jimmy’s Comedy Lounge moved into the location on April 5. “I’m trying to bring something different to Bell Boulevard,” said co-owner Jimmy Coady. “There’s nowhere to go in Bayside.” Entertainers Corey Rodrigues and Matt Burke have already graced the new club. Jokester Mark DeMayo is scheduled to perform April 26. Rooms at the comedy lounge are also available for party rentals. Coady said he is thinking of holding an open mic night. Admission is 21 and over. For event tickets, visit www.eventbrite. com. THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Jimmy’s Comedy Lounge on Bell Boulevard has opened in the place of former restaurant Cascarino’s. Community Board worried over chemical concerns BY TERENCE M. CULLEN tcullen@queenscourier.com The cleanup of polluted soil in Ozone Park has some residents worried toxic chemicals have spread throughout the neighborhood. End Zone Industries will begin a long-awaited project to remove just a few inches of tainted soil from under eight storage bays under the abandoned Rockaway Beach LIRR line. The bays are between THE COURIER/Photo by Terence M. Cullen 101st and 103rd Avenues, from north to south, and Tainted soil under garage bays between 101st and 99th to 100th Streets, east to west. 103rd Avenue will soon be removed. Company representatives briefed Community Board 9 about the project at its April 9 meeting – with some board members upset about the project. David Austin, project manager for AECOM, a consulting Checking that earns like savings. BestRate Checking 1.00APY1 % On balances of $5,000 or more. Plus, get up to $ 1 5 0 when you open a new checking account.2 Additionally, a BestRate Checking account provides you with: Free online banking and bill pay, Free Mastercard® ATM/Debit card, Free direct deposit and more. For more information or to find a branch near you, call 800.581.2889 or visit www.FlushingBank.com. 1 New accounts and new money only. Existing checking account customers are not eligible. An existing checking customer is defined as anyone who currently has or has had a Flushing Bank checking account within the last 24 months. New money is defined as money not currently on deposit with Flushing Bank. The APY is effective March 1, 2013. The annual percentage yield (APY) for BestRate Checking is 1.00% and will remain in effect for 90 days after account opening. At the end of this 90-day period the rate will revert to 0.60% and rate may change at any time without notice. You must maintain a daily balance of $5,000 for the statement cycle to receive the disclosed yield and to avoid the monthly maintenance fee of $10. A daily balance below $5,000 will be assessed a lower Annual Percentage Yield. Fees may reduce earnings. 2 New accounts and new money only. Existing checking account customers are not eligible. An existing checking customer is defined as anyone who currently has or has had a Flushing Bank checking account within the last 24 months. This offer is limited to one checking account per household. Minimum deposit required to open a new checking account is $100. Debit Card Purchases – You will receive $75 for the completion of 5 debit card purchases. Each debit card purchase must be $25 or more. Online Banking Bill-payments OR Direct Deposit – You will receive $75 for completing 5 online banking bill-payments via Flushing Bank’s Online Banking portal OR signing up for and receiving a recurring direct deposit of $250 or more. Each online bill-pay must be $25 or more. Tax refund checks do not qualify as direct deposit. Online Bill-payments, Debit Card Purchases and Direct Deposits must be completed prior to 60 days after the account is opened. THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT ANY CUSTOMER CAN RECEIVE IS $150. The compensation will be credited to the checking account on or about 75 days after the account is opened. A 1099 will be issued in the amount credited to your account. Other fees and restrictions may apply. All offers are subject to change and termination without prior notice at any time. Speak with a Flushing Bank representative for more details and information about these offers. Flushing Bank is a registered trademark firm for End Zone, said major construction will take about three to four months. The “dirty dirt,” Austin said, would be securely removed from the garage bays in bags and transferred to a landfill on sealed trucks. There will also be air monitors running about 12 hours a day, should any contaminants make it into the air. But board member Etienne David Adorno said he was worried that the monitors would only alert offi - cials, not do anything to prevent or clean up. “So if there’s a contaminant released into the air, then all it tells us is ‘Hey, a contaminant was just released into the air,’” he said. “So it doesn’t really do us any good once it’s in the air.” A system of pipes would also be installed to take spoiled air out of the soil, through a fi ltration system and back into the ground, Austin said. But concerns over a spread chemical, Trichloroethylene (TCE), business disruption and other concerns had board members skeptical about the project. TCE is an organic chemical that’s been used in cleaning solvents, paint thinner and pepper spray, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Vincent Evangelista, whose podiatry offi ce is nearby the cleanup, expressed concern over the TCEtainted brown water about 30 feet under the surface. Evangelista asked Austin and End Zone representatives if the contaminated soil, deemed by End Zone to be non-hazardous, immediately stopped outside of the allotted bays. Austin acknowledged the soil could have spread to other parts of the neighborhood, but most of it has not been tested. “There’s always unknowns when you dig underground and into dirt,” he said. Testers only examined the soil under the eight bays, as required by the state’s Department of Environment Conservation (DEC). It’s a matter the board would have to take up with the DEC to get the rest of the neighborhood tested, Austin said.
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