FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 7, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Food drive for
LaGuardia students
LaGuardia Community College
launched a food drive last week to fi ll its
on-campus pantry serving she school’s
50,000 students, a majority of whom
struggle to make ends meet.
In addition to non-perishable food
other items that are needed include toiletries,
childcare items and household supplies,
and clothes that would allow students
to dress appropriately for job interviews.
“More than 70 percent of our student
body come from families making less than
$30,000 a year,” LaGuardia Community
College Director of Food and Nutrition
Programs Nicolle Fernandes said. “And
many of these students are older and support
families of their own and our Single
Stop is available to all of them.”
Th e Single Stop is a on-stop shop for
students needing emergency assistance.
Fernandes said, “Nearly 1 in 4 Laguardia
students receive support from Single Stop.
Th at’s nearly 5,000 students each year.”
She said that demand for the food
pantry has risen signifi cantly in recent
months.
Members of the community can make
in-person donations through March 20
at the college’s welcome desk, located
in the lobby of Shenker Hall at 31-10
Th omson Avenue in Long Island City.
Donations can be made online at https://
www.laguardia.edu/fooddrive/.
Bill Parry
Time for city
to ‘Play Fair’
with parks
City Councilman Barry Grodenchik
joined nearly 200 New Yorkers, environmental
activists, advocacy groups and
unions on the steps of City Hall on Feb. 28
to introduce a newly formed parks advocacy
coalition.
Members of the Play Fair Coalition,
which includes the Queens councilman
and Parks and Recreation Committee
Chair, New Yorkers for Parks, New York
League of Conservation Voters, D.C. 37
and over 60 other parks and open space
advocacy groups, demanded that the city
provide an additional $100 million for
parks and green spaces.
Th e coalition introduced the Play Fair
campaign, a new multi-year campaign
leading up to the 2021 mayoral election
that seeks to improve the quality of New
York City parks, address climate change,
and create green jobs.
In their new proposal, the Play Fair
Coalition asked that the city invest $100
million, or 0.10 percent, into the City
Parks expense budget.
“For more than a generation, parks
have been shortchanged in the city budget,”
said Grodenchik. “Across our city, in
all fi ve boroughs, in every neighborhood,
parks are the places where New Yorkers
play, exercise, and breathe fresh air, the
places where we clear our minds, rejuvenate
our bodies, and refresh our spirits.”
Jenna Bagcal
Board 11 hears plans for Throgs Neck storm gate
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy
severely impacted many parts of the
New York and New Jersey harbor region,
which left the United States Army Corps
of Engineers (USACE) to come up with
plans to manage future potential coastal
storm risks.
Th e USACE began a series of feasibility
studies in 2015 and presented the fi ndings
from the “New York-New Jersey
Harbor and Tributaries Coastal Storm
Risk Management Interim Report,” at
the March 4 Community Board 11 meeting
in Bayside.
According to project manager Bryce
W. Wisemiller, the focus for aff ected
areas of northeastern Queens is the
Th rogs Neck Bridge Storm Gate Project,
which is included in one of the USACE’s
planned alternative defensive measures
totaling anywhere from $15 to $120 billion.
Wisemiller said that the entire USACE
study focuses on an area about the size
of Delaware and includes the following
regions:
• All of New York City
• Th e Hudson River to Troy, New York
• Th e lower Passaic, Hackensack, Rahway
and Raritan rivers
• Th e upper and lower Bays of New York
Harbor
• Newark, Jamaica, Raritan and Sandy
Hook Bays
• Th e Kill Van Kull
• Arthur Kill and East River tidal straits
• Th e Western Long Island Sound
Wisemiller told the community board
members that the USACE in partnership
with their sponsors released a 1,600-page
interim report last week which contained
the economic studies they conducted and
people’s comments and concerns from
various scoping meetings. Th e project
manager said that there are fi ve feasible
alternatives, which the USACE will further
study and include in a New York
resiliency project released to the public in
March 2020.
Th e ultimate goal is to prevent “loss of
human lives and damages to property,
with due consideration of the economics
of proposed breakwaters, seawalls,
dikes, dams, and other structures, warning
services, or other measures which
might be required,” said the USACE in
a statement.
Th e Th rogs Neck Bridge option is part
of the most expensive ($118.8 billion)
of the alternatives from the USACE,
which City Limits said would comprise
a “combination levee, berm and surge
gate/barrier system connecting to Sandy
Hook, New Jersey, across the transect to
Breezy Point of Rockaway peninsula.”
Th e plan would include a surge barrier
enclosure along the East River and west
of the Th rogs Neck as well as a “small
embayment” near Pelham Bay Park in
the Bronx.
Other alternatives include small, midsized
and regional storm-surge barriers,
or taking no action at all.
Upcoming meetings to present the
interim fi ndings are scheduled in New
York and New Jersey until mid-April.
Meetings include 30 minutes to view
explanatory posters, a 30-minute presentation
and an audience question-and-answer
session.
Th ough there is no session currently
scheduled in Queens, Wisemiller said he
“fully anticipates” there will be one scheduled
for the borough based on requests
that the agency receives. In the meantime,
he said that the USACE is willing to come
to various community meetings to make
community presentations.
For more information, read the project
fact sheet or email the project manager
or NYNJHarbor.TribStudy@usace.
army.mil.
Photo: Jenna Bagcal/THE COURIER
Project manager Bryce W. Wisemiller at Community Board 11 meeting
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