3
QUEENS WEEKLY, JULY 14, 2019
BY JACOB KAYE
While a concrete
redevelopment plan has yet
to fall into place, property
owners, Department
of Transportation
officials and members
of Community Board
7 gathered in Willets
Point on July 8 to survey
the state of the streets
and begin planning
for new roads in the
industrial park.
But with government
officials in front of them
on July 8, property owners
took the opportunity to air
their grievances.
“I don’t want to hear
a lot of PR stuff,” said
Irene Prestigiacomo, a
property owner in the Iron
Triangle. “I want to hear
actual facts.”
The city Department
of Transportation (DOT)
secured $17 million
in funding for road
improvements in the
crumbling industrial
neighborhood in the most
recent capital budget.
“The roads need to be
addressed,” said Nicole
Garcia, the DOT’s Queens
borough commissioner.
When property owners
expressed concern that the
money may get caught up in
planning and never result
in shovels in the ground,
Garcia reassured them
it would.
“That $17 million
isn’t going anywhere,”
Garcia said.
Garcia, who’s visited
Willets Point several
times before, walked along
Willets Point Boulevard
with several property
owners as department
officials took pictures of
the roads to take back to
their colleagues.
“There’s no place like
this in the city,” said Sam
Sambucci, the owner of
A & D Used Auto Parts
and Cars in Willets Point.
“We just need to have
accessible streets.”
Willets Point, located
between Flushing Creek
and Citi Field, is home
to dozens of auto shops
and little else. The area
has been designated for
development for the better
part of a decade. In that
time, the streets have
crumbled and become
covered in potholes,
making them dangerous
to drive on, owners and
workers in the area say.
Garcia said that the
state of the roads in Willets
Point makes it so that a
quick fix is not possible.
Technical surveyors,
contractors and time will
be needed to make the
roads right again.
In addition to improving
the streets, business
owners and workers
asked Community Board
7 members present at the
meeting to help them get
street lights, road signs
and a sewage system.
“Wait, nobody has a
bathroom?” Community
Board 7 Vice Chairman
Chuck Apelian asked the
dozen property owners and
workers at the meeting.
“No,” they said
in unison.
Business owners meet with government officials to discuss
plans to improve the roads in Willets Point on Monday,
July 8. Photo : Jacob Kaye/QNS
They’re waiting for kickoff
College Point fumes over delays in football fi eld construction start
The soccer field at College Point Fields, where residents participate in organized sports leagues. Local residents are waiting
for the Parks Department to build a new football field there as well. Photo: Carlotta Mohamed/QNS
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
After a hiatus on
the development of a
football field at a College
Point Sports Complex,
the project is moving
forward and construction
is anticipated to begin in
November 2019, according
to a spokesperson from the
Parks Department.
The project, currently
in the procurement stage,
will construct a natural
turf football field at an
undeveloped portion of the
College Point Fields located
between 130th and Ulmer
streets, between 23rd
and 26th avenues, which
includes a soccer field and
hockey rink.
“Construction will
include a new connection
into the park from Linden
Place and new amenities
will include drinking
fountains with bottle
fillers, bleachers, pathway
security lighting and
additional plantings,” said
the Parks Department.
The project received
$5,050,000 from the City
Council and $2,000,000
from the Mayor’s Office —
a combined total funding
of $7,050,000. Construction
is expected to take 18
months, according to the
Parks Department.
The football field
has been long overdue,
according to Richard
Fabrizi, football coach and
president of the Whitepoint
Football and Cheer
organization, which serves
over 400 families teaching
football to children ages 5
to 14.
The organization splits
their league with two fields
to accommodate families
and would like a football
field of their own, Fabrizi
told QNS last year.
Fabrizi had petitioned
the city in 2016 to build a
football field at the site.
When the Parks
Department had approved
the capital project in 2016
to construct the football
field with allocated
funding from Councilman
Paul Vallone and Borough
President Melinda Katz,
Fabrizi thought the dream
of having their own
football field was coming
to fruition.
However, last year,
the project was still in
the design phase with
no word from the Parks
Department, according
to Fabrizi.
“We are losing kids by
the truck load, parents are
worried about Flushing
Fields conditions (holes,
rocks, swamp when it rains,
dog manure) as well as
adult softball being played
as our kids are practicing
and playing, then there
is the handball courts
that have been plagued by
marijuana at all times of
the day,” said Fabrizi in a
statement to QNS.
Last year, Whitestone
residents reached out to
the Parks Department
regarding the long awaited
football field in the College
Point complex, said
Alfredo Centola, president
of the We Love Whitestone
Civic Association.
“Our children have
been without a proper
football field for too
long and when finally
approved, it stops with no
explanation,” said Centola.
“I It was approved, it was
in the proper planning
stages. What happened?
Our communities
deserves better.”
Construction of
the football field was
originally slated to begin
in September 2016 with a
projected completion in
January 2018. However, the
project was delayed after
the Parks Department noted
the challenges of building
on the site, which is a
former landfill.
Bumpy ride for city
on Willets Pt. tour