14 SEPTEMBER 5, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Forest Park sludge dump causes big stink
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
The city Parks Department was
seemingly caught red-handed
on Thursday dumping waste in
a dormant corner of Forest Park, but
the agency claims the smelly sludge
was not hazardous.
The location is the same section of
Forest Park where the agency plans
to create a new entrance where parkgoers
from nearby Glendale can enter
from Myrtle Avenue to other sections
that will also soon be revamped.
To witnesses, the scene reeked
of a potentially hazardous sewage
dump. However, a Parks Department
spokeswoman confirmed to QNS it
was in fact sediment and other matter
pulled from catch basins after a
reader provided footage of trucks
doing the dumping.
“This is not hazardous waste. These
trucks were used to clear soil and
sediment from our clogged catch
basins and spray shower drains to
prevent puddling. Fresh water from
the holding tanks is used to flush the
sediment,” spokeswoman Meghan
Lalor said. “Any large debris will
be addressed this evening and then
we will follow up by raking the sediment
with machinery to address any
thing remaining.”
The dumping occurred near
the northeast corner of the park
where people are able to enter from
Myrtle Avenue. The Parks Department
has been looking to revamp
the area, which mostly serves as a
route for motorists get on the Jackie
Robinson Parkway.
But the scene was alarming for
multiple people in videos captured
as the smell was bad, according to
those in the video, and garbage such
as water bottles and wrappers could
be seen.
“The smell of the discharge was
abhorrent. There were gallons and
gallons of muck, mud, debris and
heavens know what else,” said Frank
Schorn, who captured the videos.
“The liquid flowed into a sewer entrance
some dozens of yards away.
The sewer grate is nearly completely
blocked with debris from prior discharges
of waste.”
Meanwhile, Councilman Robert
Holden turned to Twitter to deem the
practice of dumping what he called
“sewage” as “irresponsible,” and
something he would work to prevent
in the future.
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
The city’s Department of Transportation
is expediting its plans
to create safe and eff ective connections
for bicyclists and pedestrians
to the shared-use path on the new
second span of the Kosciuszko Bridge
between Queens and Brooklyn.
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg
detailed the improvements
in a letter to City Comptroller Scott
Stringer after he criticized the
agency for the lack of infrastructure
that would protect cyclists and
pedestrians on roads leading to the
bridge when it opened Aug. 29.
“Based on NYSDOT’s (New York
State Department of Transportation)
original estimate that the new
path would open in the fall, we had
scheduled implementation of the
city street portion of these connections
for late summer,” Trottenberg
wrote, adding that new signs and
marking would be installed along
the approaches to the K-Bridge
this week.
“On the Queens side of the bridge,
NYSDOT is still at work on some
of the key infrastructure connections,
particularly along Laurel
Hill Boulevard. That street will
eventually include a new parking
protected bike lane,” Trottenberg
wrote. We will coordinate relevant
on-street bike connections with the
The DOT will speed up work to make streets in Sunnyside and Maspeth safer for cyclists and pedestrians to
connect with the dual path on the new span of the Kosciuszko Bridge. Photo: Bill Parry
completion of that work starting
with 43rd Street, which includes
raised lanes, and 50th Avenue.”
Additional lanes will be added in
the coming months on 47th Street
and 48th Street in Maspeth and
Woodside, with 56th Road and Rust
Street in Maspeth under development
for 2020. Similar work will
be done on the Brooklyn side of
Newtown Creek.
Trottenberg added that over the
long term, DOT will continue to
work on a larger protected bike
lane network shown in the Green
Wave plan, which outlines planned
protected bike lane connections on
both sides of the new bridge.
Stringer’s letter highlighted the
urgent need for action as the city
confronts cyclist and pedestrian
safety across the five boroughs. Already
this year, 19 cyclists have been
killed — nearly twice the number in
all of 2018 — which according to the
DOT have occurred disproportionately
in primarily industrial areas
that have experienced significant
population growth.
“Just as no transportation
department would open up a highway
before constructing on- and
off-ramps, it is utterly baffling that
a new bike and pedestrian path
could be introduced without sufficient
connecting infrastructure,
on Day One,” Stringer said. “The
rebuilt Kosciuszko Bridge and the
new pedestrian and cycling path
are critical arteries, but without
protected bike lanes, sufficient
lighting and high-quality signage
in the immediate vicinity, cyclists
and pedestrians could be placed in
harm’s way.”
A truck dumped smelly sludge on Aug. 29 near an entrance way to Forest
Park in Glendale. Photo via Google Maps/Inset via video courtesy of Frank Schorn
DOT gears up for bike paths to new K-Bridge span
link
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
