4 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 15, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM Glen Oaks co-op residents outraged after being without gas service for more than five weeks BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI smonteverdi@qns.com @smont76 For 40 days, residents in 40 Glen Oaks co-op units have been without gas, and they’ve had enough. Unable to cook or dry their clothes in their homes for more than fi ve weeks, residents within the Glen Oaks Village co-op spoke out at a press conference in front of the complex on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Th e situation began on Th ursday, Nov. 3, when a resident in the co-op called Con Edison to report a gas odor, according to co-op president Bob Friedrich. When workers arrived that night and tried to shut off the gas from the sidewalk, the curb valve broke, necessitating a street excavation to access the street gas valve to shut off the gas. By the next day, the gas leak problem was solved but the gas was not turned back on due to “city bureaucracy,” according to Friedrich. “What you have here is an out-ofcontrol city that has created protocols and procedures that have created all sort of delays and problems for a problem that was eff ectively fi xed on Nov. 5,” Friedrich said. New city protocols required that they replace the gas valves in all 40 units, which cost the co-op over $12,000, Friedrich said. Th is new protocol, coupled with back-and-forth with the Department of Buildings (DOB) to comply with permit and inspection requirements, is what has caused the delay in service. Members of the co-op without gas service spoke about having to eat out at restaurants, order takeout food or buy electrical cooking equipment like slow cookers and toaster ovens. Residents were unable to cook for Th anksgiving, and they are worried they will not be able to celebrate the next set of holidays coming up at the end of the month. “It’s terrible. We have no way to cook,” resident Linda Berardi said. “We had to go buy an electric skillet to cook on. We’ve been using the microwave and ordering out … I still have a frozen turkey in my freezer from Th anksgiving.” “Th is is something that should never happen anywhere in the city,” said Joseph Concannon, a member of the Queens Village Republican Club, which organized the press conference; Concannon is also running for City Council next year. “It is, by far, an example of our crumbling infrastructure here in the city of New York because this is not the only location where this is happening.” According to Friedrich, the next step in the process is collaborating with the co-op’s plumber to enter all 40 residences and reconnect the appliances within. Th en, the co-op can contact Con Edison to schedule an appointment for further testing. “City of New York: wake up. Get the gas back on here,” Concannon said. “We’re in contact with building’s facilities personnel and have been notifi ed that internal repairs have been made,” a Con Edison spokesperson said. “We will coordinate the restoration of gas service once we have received fi nal documentation from their plumber. Flushing apt. blaze leaves seven injured BY ROBERT POZARYCKI rpozarycki@qns.com @robbpoz Numerous Flushing families were left homeless on Dec. 8 by an early-morning fi re that left seven people injured, including one listed in critical condition, it was reported. According to the Fire Department, the two-alarm inferno broke out at about 4:40 a.m. on Dec. 8 on the fourth fl oor of a six-story apartment house on Sanford Avenue near 158th Street. Flames spread throughout the top three fl oors of the structure. More than 100 fi refi ghters responded to the scene along with EMS units and the 109th Precinct. Th e New York Daily News reported that an elderly man suff ered serious injuries and rushed to Jacobi Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Th ree fi refi ghters and three residents were also hospitalized with injuries not considered to be life-threatening. Th e American Red Cross provided relief to a number of families who were displaced by the fi re. According to the Fire Department, the inferno was brought under control just before 6 a.m.; the cause of the blaze remains under investigation. Queens Midtown Tunnel toll will go cash-free in January BY ANGELA MATUA amatua@qns.com @AngelaMatua Th e Queens Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City will be one of the fi rst to eliminate cash payments beginning this January. Sensors and cameras will be installed at the tunnel and cars will not be required to stop. Drivers with E-ZPass will be automatically charged and those without it will have their license plate recorded and a bill will be sent to the registered owner. In October, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all 7 MTA bridges and tunnels will employ automatic tolling by the end of next year. According to MTA spokesperson Christopher McKniff , the bill will be mailed within a 30-day period and the MTA has agreements with outof state Department of Motor Vehicles’ (DMVs) to obtain information to send toll bills to the registered owners of out-ofstate vehicles. Th ose who do not pay the initial bill will be charged $100 and if the violation notice is unpaid, the violator will be contacted by a collections agency. Cuomo has also enacted regulation that allows the DMV to suspend the registration of motorists who fail to pay fi ve tolls, fees, and other charges resulting from violations on different days within a period of 18 months. About 800,000 vehicles cross MTA tunnels and bridges each day and New York drivers spend more than 6,400 hours per day waiting to pay tolls. Automatic or open road tolling is projected to save drivers up to 21 hours of driving time every year, conserve approximately 1 million gallons of fuel and save $2.3 million each year, Cuomo said. At the Queens Midtown and Hugh Carey (Brooklyn Battery) Tunnels, new barriers will be installed to block fl oodwater and increased submersible pumping capacity will allow the city to more thoroughly pump water out of these structures in an event like Hurricane Sandy. Photo by Suzanne Monteverdi/THE COURIER Renderings courtesy of Grimshaw All MTA bridges and tunnels, including the Queens-Midtown Tunnel (pictured), will incorporate automatic tolling. Photo by Robert Stridiron Firefi ghters on the scene of an apartment fi re in Flushing on the morning of Dec. 8.
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