14 JULY 6, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Help support the Jimmy Fund and ‘Strike Out
Cancer’ at a Taco Bell shop in Ridgewood
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
A popular fast food chain on
Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood
is participating in an annual
fundraising campaign to help “Strike
Out Cancer.”
Through July 18, the Taco Bell located
at 57-29 Myrtle Ave. will be joining
several other Taco Bell and Kentucky
Fried Chicken (KFC) locations across
New York and New England and take
part in the Jimmy Fund’s “Strike Out
Cancer” pin-up campaign.
Customers will be asked to donate
$1, $3 or $5 to the Jimmy Fund. Those
who do will receive a baseball pin-up
to write their name or the name of a
friend or loved one. The pin-ups will
be displayed in the restaurants and
stores during the campaign.
Those who contribute $3 or more to
the campaign at participating Taco Bell
and KFC locations will receive a coupon
sheet featuring deals from Taco Bell,
KFC, Water Country, Museum of Science,
Franklin Sports, Valvoline Instant Oil
Change℠, Mama Rosie’s and Sully’s Brand.
When customers purchase a baseball
pin-up, 100 percent of the proceeds
go directly to the Jimmy Fund, which
supports cancer research and patient
care at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute.
“We are looking forward to raising
critical funds for cancer research
and patient care at Dana-Farber
through our longstanding ‘Strike
Out Cancer’ campaign,” said Roger
Lockwood, chairman of Lockwood/
McKinnon Company, a Taco Bell
franchisee and a trustee of Dana
Farber Cancer Institute. “We
are grateful to our loyal customers
who have generously supported this
campaign for the past 15 years, to
help work towards a world without
cancer.”
Taco Bell began supporting the
Jimmy Fund in 2002, and in 2006, KFC
joined the fold to be a part of “Strike
Out Cancer,” together helping the
program raise more than $2.2 million.
Photo via Google Maps
Governor’s MTA ‘state of emergency’ has some skeptical
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
Governor Andrew Cuomo
outlined on June 29 a series of
measures to repair the city’s
beleaguered and broken subway
system that has many commuters
in Queens and across the city boiling
mad.
Cuomo said the state would pour
another billion dollars into the MTA’s
capital plan, and he also declared a
state of emergency on the subway
system. The governor stated that his
order would suspend the MTA’s procurement
rules, enabling the authority
to speed up repairs and quickly
purchase the necessary equipment
and material needed.
“We know the system is decaying,
and we know the system is decaying
rapidly,” Cuomo said at the start of
the MTA Genius Transit Challenge
Conference held in Manhattan. “We
know the underlying causes of the
problem. We know that decades of
under-investment, deferred maintenance
and deferred modernization
have caused the problem. We know
this has now compounded from a
surging ridership. More volume than
the system was ever designed to hold.”
Even so, the subway system will
be pressed even more in the weeks
ahead, as Amtrak starts repairs at
Penn Station that will knock out of
service on several tracks that the
Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) uses
there. There’s also the loss of M train
service in Middle Village, Ridgewood
and Bushwick for the next two
months as the MTA replaces a century
old rail bridge. Even aft er that
project is concluded in September,
the MTA will only be able to restore
shuttle service to part of the line
as crews rebuild a century-old rail
viaduct in Bushwick, which will take
another eight months to complete.
Along with finding additional
money and expediting upgrades to
the subway system, Cuomo also directed
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota to
prepare a reorganization plan within
the next month; Lhota announced on
Thursday that the MTA would also
conduct an audit of the entire organization
and present it within 60 days,
followed within 30 additional days
by an action plan for improvements.
While many transit advocates welcomed
the governor’s roadmap to improve
the MTA, their applause came
with a heaping side of skepticism.
State Senator Michael Gianaris,
who proposed a temporary tax increase
on wealthy New Yorkers to
generate new capital funds for the
MTA, blamed years of neglect and
ignorance for causing the transit
crisis gripping the city today.
“Today’s announcement by Governor
Cuomo is an encouraging fi rst
step, but signifi cant questions remain
regarding the source of this new
capital funding and the continuing
budget hole of several billions dollars
beyond the amount announced today,”
Gianaris said on Thursday.
“Now the governor will have
to add details to his statement. A
billion dollars is a start, but where
will it come from, and is it new
money?” asked John Raskin of the
Riders Alliance. “When and where
will the state find the other billions
that are needed to truly address the
problem?”
