FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 • The Queens Courier 3 $25K donation for Alley Pond center Curious minds and lovers of the outdoors, rejoice! State Senator Tony Avella presented the Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) with a $25,000 check to be used toward funding the center’s present and future endeavors. APEC is nonprofit environmental organization located in Douglaston. The center is committed to educating children and adults, preserving open spaces and bodies of water and advocating for environmental sustainability. “It really is a wonderful organization,” Avella said. “The school session has just started, but routinely, as we get further into the school year, you’ll see thousands of school kids come here and learn about the environment, meet the animals, and just learn about how they can all work together to improve the environment: not only in our community, but throughout the city and the state.” The center is open seven days a week and hosts school field trips, learning seminars, and outdoor activities for adults, teens and children on a daily basis. According the APEC’s Irene Scheid, the $25,000 in funding will go toward general operational costs while APEC collaborates with the NYC Parks Department to execute a future expansion: a new building which will house an additional large and small classroom, allowing the center to accommodate more student field trips and childhood programs. Suzanne Monteverdi New video in Vetrano case A television tabloid has obtained security camera footage showing some of the last moments of Karina Vetrano‘s life before she was raped and murdered in a Howard Beach park. Crime Watch Daily, a news program airing on WPIX-TV, revealed on Sept. 12 the video showing the 30-year-old Vetrano jogging with her earphones on a street near the Gateway National Recreational Area on the afternoon of Aug. 2. She left her 84th Street home at 5 p.m. that afternoon and never returned. Hours later, her beaten body was discovered in the area of the park near the corner of 161st Avenue and 78th Street. An autopsy concluded that Vetrano was severely beaten, raped and strangled. The NYPD was able to create a DNA profile of Vetrano’s killer based on evidence recovered from the crime scene, but the DNA did not match anyone currently in the state DNA databank. The NYPD also released a sketch of a mystery man known to frequent the park. Although he was ruled out as a potential suspect, police officials believe this man might have seen Vetrano’s killer on the day of the murder, or might have other information that may prove helpful in solving the heinous crime. Anyone with information regarding the Vetrano murder that could prove helpful is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS, visit their website or send a text message to 274637 (CRIMES), then enter TIP577. All calls and messages are kept confidential. Robert Pozarycki Photo via Property Shark/Eugene Ilyayev The overgrown site of a former church on Barclay Avenue in Flushing where developers plan to erect a medical facility. Board slams brakes on reduced parking plan for Flushing medical facility BY SU ZANNE MON TEVER DI smonteverdi@qns.com/@smont76 Flushing residents were displeased when a developer requested a special permit that had the potential to multiply the area’s already painful parking woes. The Flushing-based developer asked Community Board 7 at its monthly meeting this Monday, Sept. 12, to recommend approval of his request for a special building permit. The board rebuffed his request with a 35-2 vote. HWL Management, headed by Yong Lee, purchased property at 150-15 Barclay Ave. last year and has begun planning the construction of a five-story, 14,975-square-foot medical building on the location. The space would be an ambulatory and diagnostic health care facility and would house five separate medical suites, according to a rep from the company. NYC Board of Standards and Appeals rule currently states that developers must build one parking space per every 300-square-foot of space in a commercial building. However, because the building will be a medical center, the company can ask the BSA to reduce the parking requirements. Instead of the required 50 parking spaces, HWL wants to create just 25 spots. All spots would be supervised by an attendant and 16 spots would be at the cellar level and nine at the first floor. Hiram Rothkrug — hired by the developer to do a traffic and parking study on the surrounding area — claimed that the building would only be short a maximum of five parking spaces during peak hours of the day and that these customers would be able to find parking on streets in the area. “According to DOT, only 30 percent of people drive their own cars to these medical facilities; the rest of the 70% come by car service, come by cab, come by bus, walking, and every other means,” said Rothkrug. During public participation, members of the community stepped forward to voice their opposition to the proposal and cited a number of concerns. “This is not a non-profit like the church. This is a money-making business,” said Samuel Adams Park, pastor at First Presbyterian Church. “Why can’t they invest the money to build enough parking spaces to keep us safe?” Parents from local schools were also concerned the permit could put their children in danger. “One of my concerns is the traffic flow: how is it going to affect the kids coming out of the school?” said a parent of a young student at Flushing Christian School. “Because kids don’t look: that’s just true.” The location is one block away from the Murray Hill LIRR station and blocks away from multiple schools and churches, including P.S. 22, Devotion Church, First Presbyterian Church of Flushing: which also houses school children during the day. Board members ultimately agreed with residents who opposed the project. “The permit will create an unsafe and even hazardous condition to school children in the area and there’s a potential for traffic jams,” concluded board member Richard McEachern. “It would just add congestion to an already highly dense area.” October 15 & 16 U NLI MITED BEER TASTING S TICKETS AVAILABLE AT QueensBeerFest.com LOCATED AT LIC FLEA & FOOD 5-25 46TH AVE. LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS
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