4 The QUENS Courier • may 14, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com CITY COMPTROLLER SENDS BACK PAN AMERICAN SHELTER CONTRACT The Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano Bayside Jewish Center to be converted to high school BY ALINA SURIEL [email protected]/@alinangelica The School Construction Authority (SCA) plans to purchase the Bayside Jewish Center and transform it into a new public high school, according to Councilman Paul Vallone. The new school will go a long way toward solving the issue of overcrowding in District 26 schools, which are at 130 percent capacity and currently short more than 3,400 seats. The new school is set to alleviate around 25 percent of that gap. Vallone said that he is going to work with residents to lessen the impact that a new school would have on their everyday lives, including potential effects on parking availability and local traffic concerns. “What is critical now is making sure that the community and community board are involved in every step of the way and that we work closely with the SCA to minimize the impact to the surrounding neighborhood,” Vallone said. The SCA has stated that an Environmental Impact Study will soon begin at the site. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an Environmental Impact Study is done to assess significant environmental impacts and reasonable alternatives which would avoid or minimize adverse impacts or enhance the quality of the human environment. A public review process will be conducted after the study is completed, and then it will come to a vote before the entire City Council. The Bayside Jewish Center has been at its current location at 32nd Avenue since 1960 and has seen the number of members in its congregation sharply drop in recent years. The center had an estimated congregation of 150 people in 2012 from 250 families a little over a decade before. The proportion of Jewish households in northeast Queens plummeted by half from 1991 to 2001, from 44 percent of the population down to 22 percent a decade later, according to the UJAFederation of New York’s Jewish Community Study. Photo courtesy of Paul Vallone’s office The Bayside Jewish Center is being purchased for conversion to a high school, which would alleviate District 26 overcrowding. BY ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected] @robbpoz Plans to make the former Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst a permanent homeless shelter hit a roadblock on May 11 when City Comptroller Scott Stringer refused to sign a city contract for its operation. The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and the nonprofit group Samaritan Village previously agreed upon a fiveyear, $42.4 million contract formally establishing 79-00 Queens Blvd. as a permanent transitional housing shelter. Stringer, however, sent the contract back to the mayor’s office as a result of concerns regarding conditions at the Pan American. The NY Daily News reported earlier this month that the shelter was suffering from vermin infestation. Last week, a fire also broke out in one of the units. There were no injuries reported, but the family in the affected unit was forced to relocate to another shelter. The comptroller similarly voided a DHS contract for another shelter in Manhattan. The comptroller vowed not to approve the contract until his office “receives assurances that anyone staying in these facilities will be safe” and “all outstanding violations and complaints have been corrected.” “In March, the NYC Department of Investigation released a report that highlighted unacceptable living conditions in our city’s shelters and raised significant issues about how the Department of Homeless Services identifies and cures health and safety violations,” Stringer said in a statement. “We simply can and must do better on behalf of the 60,000 people, including nearly 25,000 children, who are under our care.” The announcement came hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in Corona the creation of an interagency shelter repair squad designed to find and correct any violations in city homeless shelters. Stringer applauded the mayor for the announcement and added he is looking forward “to working closely with this group to meaningfully change the way the city procures and operates our homeless shelters.”
QC05142015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above