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out regularly. The organic waste is then transferred to one of several regional composting facilities based in Staten Island, Upstate, and one on Rikers Island, explained McDermott. Residents had many concerns about the logistics of this program though. To start, they feared they would be ticketed for improper separation, and storing the organic waste on the sidewalk that could be an open invitation for rats, raccoons, and roaches, especially those bordering cemeteries and parks. The Sanitation Department claims the cans are impervious to vermin or other creatures. Others complained that the waste would be cooking on the sidewalk for over two weeks due to the holiday pick-up schedule. Also, each bin has a bar code on it, which residents argued was for ticketing and tracking. Finally, some residents didn’t want to worry about more to separate, believing it puts a crimp in the weekly routine of garbage and recycling day, adding one more smelly thing to do. One woman who lives on 79th Street, who wished to remain anonymous, was outraged at the thought of having to clean out a small bin in her kitchen holding organic waste, let alone having the bin in her kitchen at all. In addition, at 80 years old, she wasn’t willing to walk back and forth from her apartment to a smelly barrel of rotting food scraps to empty the bin. Besides that, she wasn’t sure where to get decomposable bags to line her bins with and said if the city provided her with those bags, she may be more apt to separate the waste. “I don’t see how it’s going to work,” said the 79th Street resident. “I’m not putting that in my kitchen.” She too is certain they will be ticketed at some point. Despite heated debate, McDermott remained optimistic about the program. As for attendees’ concerns, she reiterated throughout the night that “no fines are associated with the program,” as participation is voluntary. She also made clear that pickups would not abide by the holiday or snow day calendar and would remain once a week. As for the barcodes, they are not attached to an address, but rather to gauge participation. McDermott urged residents to try it for a week, and if they didn’t like it to stop. Earlier in the meeting, she said the program, when done successfully in New York, “will be changing the way he handle waste ... changing the way the United States handles waste.” GPOA Secretary Susan Petschauer expressed excitement for the program. She’s been composting upstate her whole life and said, “We need to do something with our garbage. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.” The Community Board 5 office is getting involved and pressing local stores to carry the decomposable bags. Right now only three stores carry them: Natural Frontier, at 31-28 Ditmars Blvd in Astoria; Natural Market, at 72-56 Austin St. in Forest Hills; and Vitality and Health, at 46- 03 Broadway in Astoria. According to a member of Board 5’s office, local supermarkets have been asked to carry the bags; local hardware stores, groceries, and pharmacies in the area will also be contacted. Queens is the last borough to pick up the pilot program after organic waste collection bins were passed out to residents in Middle Village, Glendale and Maspeth. Half the city schools, or 500-700 schools, are involved in the program as well as 100,000 houses and even sky-rise buildings in Manhattan are all involved in the pilot. Other news Project Manager Marguerite Manela spoke on behalf of the New York City Compost Project, a nonprofit organization created in 1993 by the DSNY gauged towards expanding interest in individual composting by providing educational opportunities for groups, individuals, and non-profits. The organization offers workshops and classes on composting as well as a Master Composter Certificate Program and also runs a composting hotline. The organization is hosted by the Queens Botanical Garden and can be reached at 1-718-539-5296. Alex Maureau, a liaison to Senator Joseph Addabbo, said the 50+ job fair was a great success, attracting more than 700 people and 25 vendors.Aregular job fair will be coming up sometime in September. * * * The Glendale Property Owners Association will not meet in July and August; its next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Pancras Pfeifer Hall, located at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and 68th Street. TIMES, THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014 • 26 Glendale Rails On Organic Recycling At GPOA -CONTINUED FROM PG. 3- Book M.V. Man As Kid Molester fondled the victim. The incident was later reported to the Suffolk County Police Department, and the case was presented to the department’s Special Victims Section for further investigation. Detectives reportedly tracked down Chaudhry last Wednesday as he operated his truck on North 16th Street in Wyandanch and took him into custody. He was charged with first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. According to court records, Chaudhry was ordered held on $150,000 bond or $50,000 cash during his arraignment in Suffolk County Criminal Court last Thursday, June 5. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 3- Pat Buchanan News & Opinion -CONTINUED FROM PG. 4- vicious criminal demanding ransom, would refuse to negotiate? Yet, if those released Taliban are indeed “hardened terrorists who have the blood of Americans ... on their hands,” as John McCain charges, why were they not prosecuted and punished like the Nazis at Nuremberg? America has sent a message to its enemies by trading five war criminals for Sergeant Bergdahl: The nation with a preponderance of the world’s hard power has a soft heart. And though America rejoiced with the parents of Sgt. Bergdahl this weekend, other troubling issues have begun to be raised. Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, said on ABC that Bergdahl “served the United States with honor and distinction” and “was an American prisoner of war, captured on the battlefield.” But is this true? His fellow soldiers say Bergdahl was not missing in action, and not wounded. Disillusioned with the war, he walked away from his post. In an email to his parents three days before he went missing. Bergdahl wrote, “I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of U.S. soldier is just the lie of fools. ... I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting.” For days, Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers were out searching for him, risking their lives to prevent his Taliban captors from taking him into Pakistan. U.S. soldiers may have been wounded and some may have died in the attempt to rescue their lost sergeant. Did Sgt. Bergdahl defect, did he desert, did he collaborate with the enemy? We do not know. But these charges will have to be investigated. For if they are not, or if they are proven true and Bergdahl evades all punishment, it would be a blow to Army morale and widen the gulf between the Army and commander in chief that was on display at West Point a week ago. Sergeant Bergdahl, one suspects, is about to become a famous and representative figure of his country’s divisions in the Obama era. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” Beep Grants To Brighten Biz Strips new lighting will improve our safety as well as positively affect our quality of life.” Sunnyside merchants will also benefit from a commercial corridor grant of $56,950 to plant 27 new street trees and tree guards through the Sunnyside Shines BID, which runs on Queens Boulevard between 38th and 50th streets and on Greenpoint Avenue between 45th and 47th streets. The funds will also be used to expand existing street tree beds. “The new street trees and their tree guards will add much-needed greenery to Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue and help make our neighborhood an even better place to shop, live and do business,” added Rachel Thieme, executive director of the Sunnyside Shines BID.O ther organizations across Queens receiving commercial corridor grants include the following: • The Jamaica Center Business Improvement District will get $229,000 to install 102 decorative pedestrian light arms on light poles along Jamaica Avenue between 168th Street and Sutphin Boulevard and on Union Hall Street between Jamaica and Archer avenues. • The Farmers Boulevard Community Development Corporation will receive $100,000 for new trees and plantings at a property on 99th Avenue and Farmers Boulevard, and the creation of a “Green Street” at the corner of Murdock Avenue and Farmers Boulevard in St. Albans. • The Steinway Astoria Partnership will receive $200,000 for the creation of green space around the Steinway Clock between 30th and 31st avenues and at a municipal parking lot on Steinway Street between Broadway and 31st Avenue. • The Friends of Rockaway Beach and the 100th Precinct Community Council will receive $200,000 for streetscape improvements, such as new fencing and directional guides, along Beach 116th Street between Beach Channel Drive and the oceanfront. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 6- DHS Flips On Using Hotel As Homeless Shelter 5’s May 22 public hearing on the proposed homeless shelter at 78-16 Cooper Ave. in Glendale. During the session, DHS Assistant Commissioner Lisa Black stated the agency dismissed the former Pan American Hotel as a suitable shelter site, as it lacked “kitchens and bathrooms.” Her statement was met with jeers from skeptical attendees. Sources familiar with the situation stated the DHS, recognizing a growing need for homeless housing, changed course on the Pan American Hotel following the May 22 hearing. Each of the units have private bathrooms, and the agency is providing families with three daily meals until it can find alternate shelter for them. “The City of New York remains committed to offering homeless families the compassion and dignity they deserve in their moment of need,” the DHS spokesperson told this paper Wednesday. “As the number of families with children residing in temporary, emergency shelter grows, we must consider all avaliable options to address our capacity needs and meet our legallymandated right to shelter.” COMET claimed on its website Tuesday that Samaritan Village—the nonprofit agency behind the Glendale homeless shelter proposal— submitted a proposal to DHS to transform the Pan American Hotel into a shelter for up to 200 families. The DHS spokesperson made no mention that the agency received such an application. While the DHS claimed it notified “all elected officials” about housing homeless families at the Pan American Hotel, City Council Member Daniel Dromm claimed he received no advanced notification of the DHS’ plans. “Elmhurst has already had to bear a huge burden of services for the less fortunate. One block away is the Metro Motel, another homeless shelter,” Dromm said in a statement posted on COMET’s website. “I am upset that I was only informed that 36 homeless families would be given shelter at the Pan Am Hotel as it was actually happening at around 4:45 p.m. last Friday night.” “The hotel has 216 rooms. I believe it is bad policy to bring that many needy people into one place,” he continued. “While I recognize and support the need to house our homeless, I believe that this number is way too large. While DHS has promised my office added security and additional social services at the site, I still believe Elmhurst is overburdened.” COMET plans to hold a rally against the shelter outside the former Pan American Hotel at 6 p.m. Tuesday night, June 17, rain or shine. Rosemarie Daraio, COMET’s president, encouraged all to attend. Meanwhile, Samaritan Village’s Glendale homeless shelter proposal—which would convert the former factory on the Cooper Avenue site into a transitional housing facility for up to 125 families—remains active. An environmental study is ongoing to determine if the location is contaminated, one of many concerns voiced by the proposal’s opponents. Responding to a DHS request, Board 5 Chairperson Vincent Arcuri and District Manager Gary Giordano sent to Black last Friday a list of 15 concerns, issues and questions raised by residents during the May 22 hearing. “Thirty-three individuals, including elected officials, spoke at this important public hearing. Virtually every speaker raised serious concerns and questions related to this proposal,” Arcuri and Giordano wrote. After summarizing the points of contention, they concluded that it is “the unanimous position” of Board 5, local residents and elected officials, “that this site should be rejected for use as a transitional residence for homeless families.” -CONTINUED FROM PG. 1- Visit Us On The Web at www.timesnewsweekly.com


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