WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 27, 2018 11
2018 Year in Review
JANUARY – FEBRUARY
January
COMPILED BY BILL PARRY
First murder of 2018
in Richmond Hill
A 26-year-old Richmond
Hill woman became the
city’s fi rst reported homicide
on New Year’s Day. Police
said the victim, Stacy Loknath,
was found with multiple stab
wounds inside her home on
103rd Avenue near 113th Street at
1:09 p.m. on Jan. 1, police said. Loknath, a mother of two, who was stabbed
multiple times in the back. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene
in what investigators said was part of a murder-suicide. Earlier in the
morning, police found her 42-year-old husband hanging from a tree
about a mile away in Forest Park. The husband was identifi ed as Vinny
Loknath, whose body about two hours before offi cers from the 106th
Precinct found Stacy Loknath dead in Richmond Hill. Investigators said
the couple were in an abusive relationship.
St. Pancras School closes
its doors for good
Citing anemic enrollment and
resulting financial losses,
Glendale’s St. Pancras School
— a neighborhood fixture for
nearly 110 years — closed its doors
in June. Parents of the 105 students
currently enrolled at the Catholic
school received the news on Jan. 10 in a letter co-signed by Reverend Francis
Hughes, St. Pancras Church pastor, and Maria Soto, the school’s principal.
According to the letter, the St. Pancras student population dropped by 100
students over the last six years. The downturn in enrollment reduced the
school’s income from tuition, creating a budget shortfall that now exceeds
$250,000, Hughes and Soto said. Despite the school community’s best eff orts
to keep it going — including holding fundraisers and an extensive marketing
campaign — Hughes and Soto said the situation was no longer sustainable. St.
Pancras School opened in 1908 at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and 68th Street.
The school grew into a community fi xture hosting a variety of educational,
parish and athletic functions, including an active CYO sports program.
Toys R Us closes in Middle Village
International toy store chain Toys R Us
closed up to 182 locations nationwide, including
two in Queens, as part of the company’s
reorganization aft er fi ling for Chapter
11 bankruptcy. The list of closures included
the Toys R Us inside the Metro Mall-Middle
Village at 66-26 Metropolitan Avenue and the
Babies R Us on 20th Avenue in College Point.
Later in the year, the entire retail chain went
under. Back in September 2017, the company
fi led for bankruptcy because of signifi cant
debt and the need to restructure the company
for the modern era, the report said.
February
COMPILED BY BILL PARRY
Bridge work hurts
Middle Village businesses
People used to wait outside to get into
Tropical Restaurant in Middle Village on
Valentine’s Day, but this year, the holiday
brought owner Steven Vinas nothing but heartbreak.
Sitting at a table in the completely empty
dining room on Feb. 23, he said this is what it
looked like on Valentine’s Day a week prior, and
just about every other day for the past year. The
restaurant has been serving its popular Ecuadorian
cuisine for 13 years on Fresh Pond Road near Metropolitan Avenue,
but Vinas, 44, said business is plummeting because of a botched construction
project outside his front door. The reconstruction of the bridge deck on
Metropolitan Avenue had been a source of local frustration for more than
a year. Originally scheduled to begin in July 2016, he project was originally
stalled by a contractor who defaulted on the work and DOT spent some
months re-opening the bid to fi nd a new company to fi nish the job. Vinas was
able to keep his business afl oat and in June Beaver Concrete Construction
Company Inc. was awarded a bid to complete the task of getting the intersection
back on track. The project was fi nally completed before Thanksgiving.
Teenager drowns in Forest Park pond
A Glendale boy died aft er being
pulled from an ice-covered
pond in Forest Park. Authorities
identifi ed the victim as Anthony Perez,
11, of 88th Lane who was with another
boy at Strack Pond in Forest Park when
the incident took place. According to fi re offi cials, the FDNY responded to a
call of a person that had fallen into Strack Pond, in the vicinity of Woodhaven
Boulevard and Forest Park Drive, at approximately 4:05 p.m. on Feb. 6. Fire offi
cials said that there were two children involved. One of them called for help
but it was not yet known if that child also fell into the water. The other child
fell into the water, was rescued and provided medical attention at the scene.
Paramedics then rushed the victim to Jamaica Hospital in serious condition.
Two fi refi ghters are also being treated for hypothermia, fi re offi cials said.
Midville woman wins big jackpot
A Queens woman won big time aft er buying a scratch-off ticket from
a Middle Village drug store.
Ruth Tritremmel, a retired
bookkeeper, was running her morning
errands when she purchased a
$5,000,000 Bankroll scratch-off
ticket. While she was at Artis Drugs
on Eliot Avenue near 80th Street, she
saw a woman scratching off that same ticket. “I walked up to the clerk and
asked her for one of those tickets,” Tritremmel said. “She told me it was
number 28 and I knew it would be good because my daughter’s birthday
is the 28th.” Aft er scratching off the ticket, Tritremmel was unclear of
how much she won. Thinking she won $5,000, Tritremmel headed to the
Lottery offi ces in Plainview, but little did she know the windfall awaiting
her. The jackpot on the $5,000,000 Bankroll ticket is paid as a one-time
lump sum payment. Tritremmel received a net check totaling $3,115,200
aft er taxes and other withholdings.
/WWW.QNS.COM
