8 MAY 31, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Ozone Park
man cuff ed in
triple shooting
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@QNS.COM / @ROBBPOZ
An Ozone Park man appeared
in court on Wednesday for
arraignment on murder
and other charges in connection
with Monday’s triple shooting in
the neighborhood.
Police arrested Denzel Floyd,
21, of 104th Street for his alleged
role in the May 28 incident that
left one man dead and two others
injured.
Officers from the 106th Precinct
responded to a 911 call about
the gunfi re that erupted at 11:24
a.m. on May 28 at Floyd’s home on
104th Street near Liberty Avenue.
Upon arriving at the residence,
they found Jonathan Polanco, 27,
of 102nd Street in Ozone Park
shot in the neck. Paramedics
rushed him to Jamaica Hospital,
where he later died.
According to the New York
Daily News, Floyd allegedly shot
Polanco inside of the residence,
then fl ed inside a black Mazda
with another man and a woman.
The vehicle wound up crashing
into two cars at the corner of
107th Avenue and 111th Street.
Citing eyewitness accounts,
the Daily News reported that
Floyd was seen exiting the
vehicle following the collision
and running toward the corner
of 107th Avenue and 110th Street,
where he allegedly threw a pink
handgun into a nearby yard. Police
later recovered the weapon.
In responding to that incident,
police found a 28-year-old man
inside the Mazda with a gunshot
wound to his hand. Paramedics
brought him to Jamaica Hospital,
where he was listed in stable
condition.
Later that day, authorities said,
the NYPD learned that another
28-year-old man connected to
the shooting walked into Long
Island Jewish Medical Center
with a gunshot wound to his back;
he is currently listed in stable
condition.
Floyd was charged on May
29 with second-degree murder
and attempted murder, fi rst- and
second-degree assault, criminal
possession of a weapon, reckless
endangerment and tampering
with physical evidence.
The investigation is ongoing,
police said.
Board 5 committees approve bike lane changes
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Plans from the Department of
Transportation (DOT) to expand
the bike lane network into some
sections of Ridgewood and Glendale
received approval last week from
members of the Community Board
5 Transportation and Public Transit
Committees.
At the committees’ joint monthly
meeting on May 22, all but one member
voted for the advisory body to take a
position in favor of the DOT’s plan. The
proposed bike lanes — which mostly
apply to Bushwick and Cypress Hills
in Brooklyn — are on Troutman Street,
Starr Street, Himrod Street, Harmon
Street and Cypress Hills Street.
In Ridgewood, the bike lanes on Troutman
Street, Starr Street, Himrod Street
and Harmon Street would be installed
between Cypress Avenue and Woodward
Avenue. Only the small portion of
Cypress Hills Street south of the Jackie
Robinson Parkway to the Brooklyn
border would be aff ected in Glendale.
Board 5 previously approved
bike lanes along Himrod Street and
Harmon Street, but according to DOT
project manager Craig Baerwald, the
agency never got around to installing
them.
Baerwald added that the bike lane
network in Ridgewood and Bushwick
is a high priority for the DOT aft er a
2017 study identifi ed them as areas with
a high number of cyclists killed or injured
and a limited density of bike lanes.
“We all know the benefi ts of bike
lanes,” Baerwald said. “It provides
dedicated space for cyclists, discourages
speeding and increases the predictability
of their movements as well.”
The installation of the proposed
bike lanes on Troutman Street, Starr
Street, Himrod Street and Harmon
Street would involve painting lines
on the 30-foot-wide streets to create
an 8-foot parking lane on the left side,
a 5-foot bike lane in the middle and a
17-foot combined travel and parking
lane for cars on the right.
The Cypress Hills Street extension
would involve a 6-foot bike lane on the
right side with a 6-foot buff er zone and
plastic bollards between it and the traffi
c — similar to the current bike lanes
on Cypress Hills Street in Glendale
north of the Jackie Robinson Parkway.
While the plan was met with minimal
criticism from the committee, some
members did provide suggestions as to
how it could be improved. Committee
member John Maier, for example,
Photo courtesy of DOT
said that when the Board originally
approved bike lanes on Harmon Street
and Himrod Street they extended as far
north as Metropolitan Avenue.
“I do think you guys need to start
looking at Metro, especially with that
connection on Troutman and Starr,”
Maier said. “They make sense, we
have people that have had issues with
traffi c speeds and abusive driving on
Troutman for many years.”
Other suggestions from the committee
included adding signage telling bikers
that they must obey regular traffi c
laws, better enforcement of those laws
and adding bike lanes to help commuters
deal with the impending shutdown
of the L train next summer.
Baerwald said that the plan will be
presented to the full community board
in June, and the DOT hopes to install
the lanes by the end of the year.
Brooklyn Community Board 4,
however, was not as receptive to the
plan, Baerwald said, and it declined to
support the bike lanes.
Faulty transformer sparked power outage in Middle Village
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
Parts of Middle Village were
without power for several
hours on May 25 aft er a transformer
blew, it was reported.
City Councilman Robert Holden
reported on Facebook at about 3:25
p.m. on May 25 that close to 500 Con
Edison customers had no power.
The outage aff ected a residential
area of Middle Village generally
bounded by Penelope and Furmanville
Avenues on the north, 73rd Place
on the west, Metropolitan Avenue on
the south and 78th Street on the east.
Homes in most of this area are powered
through overhead utility lines.
A Con Edison spokesperson told
the Ridgewood Times that the outage
occurred at 2:58 p.m. and was the result
of “contact” made with overhead
cables along Metropolitan Avenue.
Crews are not exactly sure what made
the contact that triggered the outage.
This map shows the areas of Middle Village aff ected by a power
outage on May 25.
“It could be a squirrel, a balloon,
a tree limb” or something else that
touched the lines, the spokesperson
explained.
But at 4:20 p.m., Holden remarked
on Facebook that, after speaking
with Con Edison offi cials, he learned
that a “defective transformer” was
Screenshot of Con Edison outage map
believed to have sparked the outage,
and “they are giving an estimated time
of restoration (ETR) of 8 p.m.; however,
they believe it can be restored sooner.”
By 9:30 p.m. on May 25, the Con
Edison outage map indicated that just
a handful of customers were still in
the dark.
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