FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com OCTOBER 10, 2013 • The Queens Courier 11 TACKLE TRAFFIC, SPEED BUMPS & PARKING BY MELIS A CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com Two speed bump proposals were struck down and a major highway change was recommended during a Community Board 11 Transportation Committee briefing this week. The committee denied a speed bump request on 36th Avenue between 218th and 219th Streets in an attempt to prevent pushing the traffic problem over to 38th Avenue. “We concluded that it would not do any good to put speed bumps on those streets,” said Chris Petallides, who co-chairs the committee. “When you’re trying to slow down traffic, you’re just transferring the problem to the next street,” he continued. “A truck will just conveniently move over the next street, rather than drive down the street with speed bumps.” Another proposal for a bump on 36th Avenue between Bell Boulevard and Corporal Stone Street was also shut down. Petallides and co-chair Bernard Haber said traffic at that location is caused by double-parked cars from a nearby school and not by speeding motorists. The pair of consulting engineers did, however, suggest the board reach out to the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) for a traffic study of the Long Island Expressway (LIE) exit on the southbound Clearview Expressway. Traffic gets backed up on the Clearview past Northern Boulevard from motorists waiting to get onto the LIE, Petallides and Haber said. The board’s Traffic Committee said the state DOT should widen or turn the exit into two lanes. The committee also suggested removing obstructive advertisements on a problematic bus shelter at the northeast corner of Union Turnpike and Springfield Boulevard. Drivers going west on Union, who are trying to turn north on Springfield, “cannot see a pedestrian crossing Springfield,” Petallides said, because the shelter hinders the view. The committee chose to take the less ambitious route over getting rid of the entire shelter, which straphangers use to rest or get out of the rain while waiting for the bus. “If that works, fine. If not, we’ll remove the shelter,” Petallides said. Members were also all in favor of removing overnight parking restrictions from 35-30 Francis Lewis Boulevard to 36-34 Francis Lewis Boulevard to free up spaces for nearby residents. MISSING! Norman Rockwell painting gone from storage facility BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA ctumola@queenscourier.com Police are asking for your help in finding a $1 million Norman Rockwell painting that was stolen in Maspeth last month. The painting was discovered missing from Grand Avenue’s Welpak Art Moving and Storage on September 13, said cops. Entitled “Sport,” the painting is approximately 22X28 inches and is oil paint on canvass. It was housed in a wooden frame which is gold in color, and depicts a man in a row boat wearing a yellow rain jacket, holding a fishing pole. It was painted in 1939 and is signed by Norman Rockwell on the lower right and was used as the Saturday Evening Post cover. According to Welpak’s website, the company offers fine art shipping and climate-controlled services, including artwork and antique storage, and has experience working with museums, art galleries, foundations, private collectors and art dealers. It advertises storage facilities that are “alarmed to ensure maximum protection and safety.” A person who answered the phone at Welpak said “this is an ongoing investigation and we are not allowed to discuss the missing painting with anyone.” “It’s very common for a work of high value to be put in storage to keep it from being damaged,” said Danielle Rahm, director at New York Fine Art Appraisers, one of the leading independent appraisers of the fine and decorative arts in the country. There would be no reason to not rely on a fine art storage facility as a safe way to keep the painting, she said. The stolen painting was sold from a private collector for $1,085,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York this May, according to published reports. “It would be very difficult to resell it at a known public auction,” said Rahm. Once a painting is stolen, it is typically registered with the Art Loss Register, she said. This database of stolen art provides information that can be checked if someone tries to consign a work. But, said Rahm, “there’s always a black market” for stolen art work. If you have any info, call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS. How to stay plugged in during a storm. Our outage map keeps our nine million customers in the loop during an emergency. Whether you’re on your computer or your smartphone, visit conEd.com to find the map, report a loss of power and get an estimated restoration time. You can also get storm safety tips and more. Whenever you have a power problem, always let us know. In the meantime, stay connected to Con Edison by giving us your updated contact information at 1-800-75-CONED and by following us on Facebook or Twitter. Photo courtesy NYPD
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