4 The Queens Courier • august21, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Queens brothers responsible for this year’s Electric Zoo medical safety BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ @ericjankiewicz/ejankiewicz@queenscourier.com The safety of New York City’s largest electronic music festival is in the hands of two brothers from Flushing. After two people died in drug-related events at last year’s Electric Zoo festival on Randall’s Island, the organizers are stepping up safety measures for this year’s festival on Labor Day weekend, according to the brothers Chaim and Alex Pollak. Alex founded Paradocs three years ago and the company provides medical stand-bys for all kinds of events. This year they had medical tents at Governor’s Ball and at a music show featuring Drake. “They want to keep this festival in New York City,” Chaim said. “So they’re implementing new safety measures to prevent anything bad from happening this year and to keep the festival here.” Alex and Chaim run Paradocs, a company that specializes in managing safety measures for large events like the Electric Zoo festival. Last year was their first time running the three-day electronic music event and on the first day of the show Olivia Rotondo, 20, died, according to reports last year. The festivities continued and on the second day Jeffrey Russ, 23, died. Both of the revelers died from an overdose of MDMA or Molly. The organizers decided to stop the festival and not have a third day of music. “When you have 80,000 people crammed into one place, things get complicated,” Chaim said. Alex and Chaim hope to prevent deaths this year by using Zoo Keepers — younger people who will walk through the dance floors of the festival, looking for signs of dehydration and drug-induced distress — among other initiatives. The duo also plans on having about six safety tents with medical personnel and LED signs to clearly mark the safety areas. KATZ APPOINTS NEW QUEENS LIBRARY TRUSTEE AFTER REMOVING SIX TRUSTEES BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ ejankiewicz@queenscourier.com @ericjankiewicz Queens Borough President Melinda Katz appointed Robert Santos to the board of trustees of the Queens Borough Library. The announcement comes after she ousted 1-800-382-HOME(4663) for Housing www.sonyma.org six trustees last month and Mayor Bill de Blasio cut loose two board members. A third mayoral appointee resigned. The sacked trustees attempted to regain their position in an appeal that was ultimately denied by Katz. The appointment of Santos was announced in a press release on Tuesday, Aug. 19, and the release made no reference to the former trustees or their removal. “It is an honor to serve on the board of the Queens Library and to join other involved and committed citizens dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the Queens Library system,” Santos said in the release. “Nothing is more important to the health of a community and the intellectual capital of its people than a public library, and the Queens Library is one of the best public libraries in the nation.” According to earlier reports by The Courier, the firings came after a drawn out legal battle over the tenure of Library Director Tom Galante, who was criticized after a smoking deck was built outside his office in the Central Library in Jamaica. It was also revealed that he supplemented his city salary of $400,000 with more than $200,000 in part-time pay from the Elmont, Long Island, school district. Douglas Grover, who represents the six removed trustees, said that Katz’s move was “unconstitutional” and threatens the independence of the Queens Library. Santos is a Sunnyside resident, according to the announcement. He was the vice president and chief operations officer of The New York Public Library and also worked as chief administrative officer at Adelphi University in Garden City. He has also held several positions in city government. Robert Santos Photo Courtesy of Electric Zoo
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