4 times • JUNE 18, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com Elmhurst plants tree for late Parks Dept. employee BY KELLY MARIE MANCUSO editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com @RidgewoodTimes The Parks Department and members of the Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together (COMET) teamed up on June 11 for a special Elmhurst Park Day of Service in memory of Parks Department manager Jennifer Kao. Kao, a senior project manager with the Parks Department’s Planning and Parklands division, worked with the community to help create the park on the site of the former Elmhurst gas tanks. Tragically, Kao died earlier this year. The Elmhurst Park Day of Service began with a special tree planting ceremony in Kao’s honor led by Dorothy Lewandowski, the Parks Department’s Queens commissioner. “I had an opportunity to work with Jennifer when I came here about 10 or 11 years ago,” Lewandowski recalled. “She was an important part of the Parks Department. Her character and dedication went above the task. I greatly miss her.” Kao was also fondly remembered by her fellow Parks Department colleagues, as well as community members. “I think it’s a real testament to Jennifer Kao’s reach across the agency in working with various members to get projects done,” explained Parks Department Assistant Commissioner for Planning Alyssa Konon. “For all of us who knew her, she was a very dedicated person who was very thorough and followed through on numerous tasks,” Konon said. “I’m sure it would please her to know that we’re all here today on something that she started. Here we are following through on something that she helped to make happen.” COMET representative Richie Polgar also expressed gratitude for Kao’s work in creating Elmhurst Park. “This park is one of the greatest things that have happened to this area,” Polgar said. “It’s so great to see this many people enjoying the park as it was intended to be. I’m so glad we have it.” According to Lewandowski, COMET member Christina Wilkinson reached out to her shortly after Kao’s passing requesting that the community plant a special tree in Kao’s memory. The tree planted in Kao’s honor is an Eastern Red Bud. “It gets beautiful, heart-shaped leaves and little pink flowers in the early spring that bloom against the wood, so it looks like the stems are lit up with pink,” said Queens Director of Horticulture Adriana Jaceykewycz. Community volunteers and Parks Department employees continued to work on cleaning the park and planting new flowers and shrubbery well into the afternoon. “This is a good spot to come back and contemplate about not only our own lives, but Jennifer’s, too,” Lewandowski said. RIDGEWOOD TIMES/Photo by Kelly Marie Mancuso Volunteers planted a tree in memory of a late Parks Department employee during a cleanup at Elmhurst Park last week. Maspeth’s Knockdown Center gets liquor license with limitations BY ROBERT POZARYCKI and anthony giudice editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com @RidgewoodTimes After much debate within the community, the Knockdown Center in Maspeth finally got its liquor license on June 16 from the State Liquor Authority (SLA) — but the permit comes with several significant stipulations. In an agreement brokered between the SLA and Knockdown Center representatives, the art venue at 52-19 Flushing Ave. will be permitted to serve alcohol to gatherings of between 1,000 and 1,800 people at up to 12 events annually. Tyler Myers of the Knockdown Center said in a phone interview on June 17 that after holding six large-scale events, the venue has the right to request that the SLA “relax” this stipulation. These large gatherings must also take place on Friday or Saturday nights, according to Community Board 5 (CB 5) Chairman Vincent Arcuri. Additionally, the Knockdown Center will be able to serve alcohol up to 60 times a year to gatherings of between 500 and 1,000, and another 60 times annually at events drawing up to 500 guests. “Since August of 2012, we’ve hosted over 50 events, projects and exhibitions on temporary permits which in turn support the work of nearly 1,000 individuals and organizations. The reality of all this is that all of our exhibitions and many of our events are free to the public,” said Michael Merck, co-director of the Knockdown Center, at the June 10 CB 5 meeting. “And all of our community events, fundraisers, etcetera are free to the presenting organizations, but the cost to us is a minimum of several thousand dollars, with our budgets for special projects often exceeding $10,000.” For several years, CB 5 — along with local civic groups and Maspeth residents — opposed the Knockdown Center’s attempts to obtain a liquor license, citing qualityof life concerns related to large-scale events and the fact that the facility — formerly a glass factory — was encroaching on the industrial area. “New York City has a well-documented shortage of industrial land and inappropriate uses such as an entertainment venue with a liquor license, spurring the further loss of industrial manufacturing businesses to speculation,” said Jean Tanler, coordinator for Maspeth Industrial Business Association. In 2014, CB 5 voted unanimously to recommend denial of the Knockdown Center’s liquor license application. The SLA denied the first application, but the venue’s representatives reapplied for a license earlier this year. At its June 10 meeting, CB 5 again recommended denial of the revised application, but 12 members voted in favor of the permit this time around. “The ruling is the ruling,” Arcuri said in an interview on June 17. “The only question is what the Knockdown Center will do for the certificate of occupancy.” The Knockdown Center submitted an application with the city Department of Buildings for a certificate of occupancy allowing a maximum of 3,100 people on the premises at any given time. Myers said the center is moving forward with that request, but noted it will abide by the terms of the liquor license permit. “At every step, we’ve won more and more people over,” Myers said on June 17. “We are going to be artfocused and be good neighbors. We are willing to take future steps to prove ourselves to the community.” The SLA agreement also requires that the Knockdown Center, located about 3/4-mile away from the nearest subway station, must also provide supplemental transportation services for its larger gatherings. RIDGEWOOD TIMES/Photo by Anthony Giudice The Knockdown Center in Maspeth received a liquor license on June 16. TIMES NEWSWEEKLY (USPS 465-940) is published weekly by Schneps NY Media LLC, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times, P.O. Box 863299, Ridgewood, N.Y. 11386-0299.
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