8 FEBRUARY 16, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM New push to expedite renovations at Glendale library BY ANTHONY GIUDICE AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM @A_GIUDICEREPORT For nearly a decade now, Community Board 5 (CB 5) has been pushing for a long overdue reconstruction project at the Glendale Library, and they’re hoping that the city will fi nally get it off the ground this year. The Glendale Library reconstruction project was announced as part of the top 10 priorities for the CB 5 area in the board’s fi scal year 2018 preliminary budget for New York City — as it has been for nearly a decade — during the monthly CB 5 meeting on Feb. 8 in Middle Village. “We are the ‘World’s Borough,’ and we are the world’s library,” said CB 5 Chairperson Vincent Arcuri, who happens to also be president of the Queens Library Foundation. “We are still pushing for the restoration of the somewhat-historic Glendale Library building, which was designed during the Great Depression era in a Tuscan villa style.” According to Arcuri, when the Glendale Library branch was built, it was the only project that was completed with 100 percent Work Progress Administration (WPA) labor during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” economic stimulus, which is why the branch is so ornate and included an outdoor Tuscan reading garden, which would be restored as part of this project. The project has been partially funded, to the tune of about $1.5 million, Arcuri said, but more money is needed. Some of the other improvements that will be included in the reconstruction project, if it gets funded, include restoring the main entrance and front desk to its original form, reconstruct the sunken gardens in the front of the library, as well as fi nally making the branch Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible by adding an elevator off Myrtle Avenue. “To this day, the Glendale Library is still not handicap accessible, which is in my opinion a real problem for anybody who’s disabled, for senior citizens, for parents with baby carriages,” said Gary Giordano, district manager of CB 5. “They are overdue with starting that project, and we are looking forward to that project beginning sometime before the autumn.” The remaining projects in CB 5’s top 10 capital budget priorities are as follows: Building new sewer systems where necessary in the CB 5 area, especially east of 73rd Place in Glendale; The reconstruction and instillation of new catch basins in the neighborhoods; Community Board 5 is looking to get the remaining funds to reconstruction The planting of new street trees, removal of street tree stumps and pruning; Improving pedestrian and traffi c safety in the area of Grand Avenue and 69th Street, as well as the Long Island Expressway (LIE) service roads; Checking the M train line for any deterioration, including the removal of lead paint and repaint the entire structure from Metropolitan Avenue to Wyckoff Avenue; Reconstructing the Ridgewood Reservoir Phase 2 project, including an environmental center; Getting new, cleaner locomotives for the freight line that runs through Photo via PropertyShark Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth and Ridgewood; Constructing the park adjacent to the new Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) facility that is planned near Newtown Creek; and The reconstruction of the synthetic turn soccer fi eld and running track at Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village. The board also announced their proposed expense budget, which includes 20 additional police offi cers for the 104th Precinct, more building inspectors, tree pruning and park maintenance, and funding for senior and youth programs. the Glendale Library this year. Ozone Park hotel has been used as a homeless shelter for months: lawmakers BY ROBERT POZARYCKI RPOZARYCKI@QNS.COM @ROBBPOZ Homeless families have been living at a Comfort Inn in Ozone Park for nearly fi ve months, but the city apparently didn’t tell anyone in the community about it until this week. According to a source familiar with the situation, 50 homeless families now reside at the Comfort Inn hotel located at 137-30 Redding St., about a block west of Cross Bay Boulevard; they fi rst arrived at the hotel in October of 2016. Area representatives, however, said on Tuesday that city offi cials never notifi ed them about it until very recently; a source said the lawmakers got the news on Monday, Feb. 13. In a joint statement, Councilman Eric Ulrich, state Senator Joe Addabbo and Assemblywoman Stacey Pheff er Amato blasted the de Blasio administration for failing to communicate with them and the community about the shelter situation. “Mayor de Blasio’s failed policy of housing homeless families in hotels is simply unacceptable,” they stated. “These types of shelters are not cost eff ective and do not off er any real services that actually help homeless families get back on their feet.” Donna Daly, general manager at the Ozone Park Comfort Inn, told The Courier that the city first rented 10 rooms at the hotel back in October, but didn’t begin using all of them immediately. Since then, the city now has homeless residents living in 22 rooms; three rooms are being used by Children’s Community Services (CCS), the nonprofit group managing the residents’ stay at the hotel. Most of the homeless families residing at the Comfort Inn are women with children, Daly said, and are treated as regular hotel guests. On top of daily housekeeping, they receive consultation from a CCS case manager as well as three square meals a day. The Ozone Park Comfort Inn is the latest in a number of hotels across Queens that have doubled as homeless shelters in recent years, eff orts that sparked a backlash in the communities where the hotels are located. In several instances, local offi cials weren’t notifi ed until aft er the homeless guests arrived. Homeless families began arriving at the Ozone Park Comfort Inn around the same time that the city began moving homeless men into a Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth aft er weeks of fi ghting with community residents over a plan to convert the entire hotel into a homeless shelter for adults. Opened in 2009, the Comfort Inn has a total of 75 rooms with a maximum guest capacity of 144 persons, according to the hotel’s most recent certifi cate of occupancy issued by the Department of Buildings in 2010. Superior Redding Holding LLC is listed as the hotel’s owner and operator on the Better Business Bureau‘s website. Photo via PropertyShark/Christopher Bride The Comfort Inn on Redding Street in Ozone Park, as shown in this 2011 photo.
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