4 OCTOBER 25, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
P.S. 9 staff in Maspeth confront Holden over remarks toward facility
BY MARK HALLUM
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@MARKUUSAN
Staff at P.S. 9 in Maspeth reacted
defensively to Councilman
Robert Holden’s remarks on
Thursday night at the Juniper Park
Civic Association meeting about the
dilapidated state of their school and
the need for a new facility.
Trisha Puleo, a teacher at the 57th
Street facility for students with disabilities,
defended their school built
in 1906 for all boys and situated in an
industrial block between Grand and
Flushing Avenues.
“Diesel fuel, that’s all you smell. Go
there, every one of you should go
there,” Holden said to protests from
residents of 57th Street. According
to Holden, the school is not accessible
to people with physical disabilities,
and a contract to have a $5 million
elevator installed has been canceled.
Holden has been fighting both for
the construction of a new school for
P.S. 9 students while also attempting
to have a new public school established
at a potential shelter site in
Glendale.
Puleo, on the other hand, suggested
that closing P.S. 9 at its current
site would cause more harm than
good for the students.
“The school is filled with love, the
kids are happy, they don’t even see
outside. The industrial area is about
one block around ... There are people
that do live in that community,”
Puleo said. “Not too many people
know what it is to have an autistic
child, but change is very, very hard
for them. If you’re going to pick them
up and rip them up from what they
know you are going to have a problem
on your hands.”
Holden stressed that there is
tricky angle to saving the Glendale
location, 78-16 Cooper Ave., from
becoming a shelter: the city Department
of Homeless Services could
place around 200 homeless men
there by the summer, he suggested.
It would take about a year for the
city to complete the Uniform Land
Use Review Procedure to potentially
convert P.S. 9 into a homeless shelter,
as DHS Commissioner Steve Banks
has considered in the past.
“The School Construction Authority
said they’re walking away from
P.S. 9, it’s not going to be a school,”
Holden said. “78-16 Cooper Ave., the
clock is ticking. That means there’s
a contract ready to sign, and if we
don’t move on it, we’re in trouble.
We’ll lose 78-16 and get a homeless
shelter.”
The SCA did not immediately respond
to a request for comment from
the Ridgewood Times.
City Councilman Robert Holden speaks about P.S. 9 during the Oct. 18 Juniper Park Civic Association meeting.
ULURP applications must be approved
through community boards
and later the City Council votes.
Holden is opposed to any large
shelter in the communities in his
district, favoring using a network
of properties owned by the Catholic
church and other faith-based organizations
to assist the homeless. He
would rather see the Cooper Avenue
site turned into a school.
The children at P.S. 9 do not notice
the 18-wheeler idling and passing by
the school, Puleo said in defense of
the location of the school. But Holden
said the building is in terrible shape
with bathrooms that only accommodate
one student at a time and diaper
changing stations situated above
urinals.
Photos released by the councilman,
which Holden and his staff displayed
at a slideshow during the meeting,
depict peeling paint P.S. 9 that the
facade is currently undergoing work.
While the Cooper Avenue site has
previously been test for contaminants
on the property, a more recent
Department of Environmental Protection
study showed the site only
had asbestos in the building which a
work order was in place to remedy on
the fi rst fl oor.
Holden said in a previous interview
with the Ridgewood Times that it is unclear
if the SCA would use the building
if they acquired the property at 78-16
Cooper Ave.
Photo: Mark Hallum/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
Ridgewood students’
hold sweet fundraiser
Fourth- and eighth-graders from St. Matthias Catholic Academy in Ridgewood
helped the American Cancer Society with a bake sale on Oct. 17. As
noted, the students raised $1,360 for the nonprofi t by selling cupcakes
and other sweet treats to students, teachers and staff .
Photo courtesy of Angie Rotondo
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