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RT09012016

2 TIMES • SEPTEMBER 1, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com BY ANTHONY GIUDICE agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com @A_GiudiceReport The 22nd annual Fresh Pond Road Street Festival has been whittled down to two days, instead of the usual four. This year’s festival — which is run by the Federazione Italo-Americana di Brooklyn and Queens — will take place on Saturday, Sept. 10, from noon to 10 p.m., and on Sunday, Sept. 11, from noon to 9 p.m., on Fresh Pond Road between Palmetto and Menahan streets. The original plan was to have the festival run from Sept. 8 through Sept. 11. Earlier this year, Community Board 5 (CB 5) recommended the denial of the four-day street festival by a vote of 27-8. Many people in the community were opposed to having a four-day festival since it shuts down a portion of Fresh Pond Road for four consecutive nights, causing a slew of traffi c problems for residents, as well as leaving fewer parking spots. The community has continuously raised concerns over quality-of-life issues, including the festival’s late hours and some instances of rowdy behavior. “I believe this was a compromise that the Mayor’s Offi ce of Citywide Event Coordination and Management made seeing that the community board overwhelmingly opposed the four-day festival,” said Gary Giordano, district manager of CB 5. “The other street festivals in the Community Board 5 area, the applications have been willing to just conduct them on Sunday.” However, Michael Conigliaro, the managing director advisor of the Federazione Italo-Americana di Brooklyn and Queens, said that the city permitted the festival for only two days due to the scheduled work to take place at Fresh Pond Road and Metropolitan Avenue. According to Conigliaro, there have been no complaints with any city agency and none pending, and no arrests due to activity at the festival in previous years. “All of us at the federation have a very good working relation with Captain Mark Wachter and the team at the 104th Precinct,” Conigliaro said, referring to the precinct’s commanding offi cer by name. “We have meetings before, during and after the feast with the 104 and we are in constant contact with them during the feast to make sure everything is running smoothly.” The festival will have a plethora of food and drink vendors, games and informational booths on education and health care issues for community members. The Federazione Italo- Americana di Brooklyn and Queens will also have a tent that will have early 1900s antique household and offi ce items on display, as well as old pictures of the community. On Sept. 10, there will be opera singers at the feast to do a performance, and on Sept. 11 at 3 p.m. there will be a color guard on hand to honor the 15th anniversary of 9/11. “We at the federation are proud to sponsor this, and proud to do this in the honor of Peter Cardella who started the feast 22 years ago,” Conigliaro added. Meng keeps up ZIP push for Glendale BY ANTHONY GIUDICE agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com @A_GiudiceReport Maybe the third time will be the charm. Once again, Congresswoman Grace Meng is fi ghting to get Glendale its own separate ZIP code from Ridgewood. In a letter dated Monday, Aug. 29, to Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Meng urged that her bill to create a different ZIP code for Glendale be included in any postal-related legislation that the panel may pass by the end of 2016 — which is when the current Congressional session ends. Meng’s bill, titled H.R. 657, would require the United States Postal Service (USPS) to designate a single, unique ZIP code for Glendale. Currently, Glendale shares its 11385 ZIP code with Ridgewood. In her letter, Meng notes the diffi culties faced by many Glendale residents when it comes to receiving their mail including reports of slow mail service, despite Glendale having its own post offi ce; mail being returned to the sender due to Glendale not always being recognized as a neighborhood with its own ZIP code; service providers often having trouble fi nding homes in Glendale; and Glendale not showing up on GPS devices, causing confusion about where addresses are located in the neighborhood. “Glendale deserves its own ZIP code and it’s time for the Postal Service to provide the community with one,” Meng said. “Creating a ZIP code for Glendale is critical to the neighborhood’s identity, effi - cient mail service in the community, and locating area addresses on GPS devices. I respectfully call on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to act on my legislation.” Meng originally introduced her bill in 2014, and again in 2015. The legislature is currently pending before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has jurisdiction over the USPS. Eight men cuffed in Ridgewood sex sale sting BY ANTHONY GIUDICE agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com @A_GiudiceReport They can’t seem to stay away. The NYPD arrested another eight men on Friday, Aug. 26 for paying for sex in the vicinity of Starr Street and Cypress Avenue — Ridgewood’s well-known prostitution hot spot. According to police, the eight men collared and charged with patronizing a prostitute are Luis Calle, 57, of Queens; Leovigildo Guzman, 43, of Queens; Thomas Mullins, 53, of Queens; Koniecko Rafal, 30, of Queens; Armijos Hugo, 25, of Queens; Raul Yunganaula, 25, of Brooklyn; Josef Netkowski, 72, of Queens; and Elias Cabrera, 50, of Brooklyn. The men offered between $10 and $150 for sex acts, law enforcement agents said. In the past, police have conducted “Operation Losing Proposition” stings in which female offi cers dress as sex workers and wait for the unscrupulous men to make an offer, at that exact corner. Sources with the 104th Precinct would not confi rm if this sting was a part of Operation Losing Proposition in order to protect the safety and identity of their undercover offi cers. File photo/RIDGEWOOD TIMES Congresswoman Grace Meng has renewed her ght to get Glendale its own ZIP code. Annual street festival along Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood shortened to two days File photo/RIDGEWOOD TIMES The 22nd annual Fresh Pond Road Street Festival will only be a two-day affair this year.


RT09012016
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