22 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 1, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM Photo courtesy of Jaime Williams Far Rockaway girl is top Scouts cookie seller BY EMILY DAVENPORT edavenport@qns.com / @QNS Out of the more than 10,000 Girl Scouts in Queens, a Far Rockaway scout stood out above them all as the borough’s top seller of the world-famous Girl Scouts cookies this year. Th e 2016-2017 cookie selling season marked the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts fi rst selling cookies, and this season, Girl Scouts throughout the city have sold 1,444,797 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. In total, 10,610 girls across the fi ve boroughs participated in the Girl Scout Cookie Program. However, 10-year-old Jayda Crenshaw of Far Rockaway sold 1,000 boxes, making her the top seller in Queens during the 2016-2017 sales season. Jayda has been selling cookies for more than fi ve years. Jayda has learned that perseverance is the key to being successful and reaching your goals. “I learned that to be a great businesswoman you have to talk to a lot of people,” Jayda said about becoming a top seller. “To other Girl Scouts I would say to never give up on reaching your goal and try to always do your best.” To celebrate 100 years of selling cookies, a new s’mores cookie was added to the lineup. Additionally, the Girl Scouts of Greater New York (GSGNY) started a Cookie Executive Committee where Girl Scouts who have sold 500 boxes or more come together to discuss marketing tactics and lessons learned from selling cookies, provide feedback on the cookie program, and participate in cookie selling decisions aff ecting their sister Girl Scouts. GSGNY also recently expanded the cookie-donation program to include homeless shelters and local community service organizations, while continuing to partner with United Service Organizations (USO) and VA hospitals. Called the “Gift of Caring program,” it allows customers to spread joy to those in need while supporting local Girl Scouting. File photo/THE COURIER Tenants at this Elmhurst apartment house damaged in a fi ve-alarm fi re in April are now suing to ensure that the building is quickly repaired. Lawsuit seeks quick fi x to fi re-damaged Elmhurst apts. BY ROBERT POZARYCKI rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz Aft er losing everything in a massive fi ve-alarm blaze last month, the displaced tenants of an Elmhurst apartment building just want to return home and rebuild their lives. However, the management company that owns the seven-story apartment house at 94th Street that went up in fl ames on April 11 has been slow to make the necessary repairs, according to the Legal Aid Society. Eleven fi refi ghters were injured, and all of the residents escaped without physical injury, many of them remain in temporary shelters across the city. Most of the 111 apartments inside “Th e Martinique” building remain vacant, and a number of the fi re victims have been told that the repairs could take years to complete, the Legal Aid Society noted. Fearing that the landlord doesn’t want them to return, many of the victims — with the Legal Aid Society’s help — have fi led a lawsuit calling on the courts to appoint an administrator that would oversee the repairs and ensure they are completed in a “transparent and accountable way.” Th e legal action was also fi led against the City of New York, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Environmental Control Board. Sateesh Nori, attorney-in-charge at the Legal Aid Society’s Queens civil offi ce, indicated that the situation could be tantamount to “landlord fraud.” Th e management company, he alleges, may be using the blaze as an opportunity to keep the displaced tenants out in order to rebuild the apartments and then off er them at higher rents. “Too oft en, landlords can exploit a tragedy like this fi re to exploit the impacted tenants by forcing them to give up their rights,” Nori said. “Th is lawsuit will protect these tenants from being forced to move out or face long delays and exorbitant rent increases. Th e tenants are entitled to have their apartment restored to habitability quickly and without rent increases. Residents of this building have suff ered enough tragedy. Th ey deserve nothing less.” Th e Legal Aid Society indicated that the legal action, called an Article 7A proceeding, is necessary due to the fi re’s suspicious nature. A day aft er the blaze, FDNY marshals arrested a contractor — Declan Mcelhatton of Maintenance Asset Management based in Yonkers, NY — on arson and reckless endangerment charges. Law enforcement sources said Mcelhatton had allegedly left an open fl ame near combustible material inside the structure that led to the fi vealarm inferno. Records on the Department of Buildings website indicate that a partial vacate order for the building remains due to the fi re damage. Th e building’s ownership, as listed, is the 56-11 94th Street Co., LLC, a holding company of which Laurence T. Ginsberg is registered as a member. QNS reached out to Ginsberg by phone and were directed to a voicemail for Algin Management, which describes itself on its website as “a family-owned and operated real estate company with over 50 years of experience” that manages a portfolio “of over 3,500 residential residences across Manhattan and Queens,” including “prewar townhouses to newly constructed modern towers.” A statement from Algin Management noted that the owners “have been deeply committed to this building over the past 50 years, and from the moment this incident occurred, management has been in contact with all residents to communicate verbally and in writing.” “Any claims to the contrary are patently false,” the statement continued. “Leases are being preserved and apartments are being held for residents who wish to return when repairs are complete.” Algin indicated that the building’s management “has been working around the clock to determine which areas are safe to re-enter both for permanent re-occupancy of the unaff ected wing of the building, and for the removal of personal property in the aff ected wing, which is set to undergo full interior construction and renovation.” “For this purpose, management has retained architectural engineers, mechanical engineers and environmental consultants, and progress is being made on the project, which includes major, time-consuming abatement work,” the statement concluded. “Eff orts will continue to advance the process of rebuilding so that all residents who wish to return to their homes may do so as soon as possible.”
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