FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 13, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3 Courier takes home four press awards Th e editorial staff at Th e Queens Courier and QNS.com earned four awards during the New York Press Association’s (NYPA) Better Newspaper Contents; the awards were distributed on the weekend of April 7-8 in Saratoga Springs. Th e entire Queens Courier editorial staff shared the honorable mention for Best Public Nonprofi t Special Section for its coverage of the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Sports editor Anthony Giudice received honorable mention for Best Sports Feature for his Aug. 18, 2016, story about Ra-leek Born, a 10-year-old boxing sensation from Springfi eld Gardens. Angela Matua, editor-in-chief of the LIC Courier, earned third place in the Best Conquested Targeted Email for the weekly Long Island City newsletter, while Emily Davenport received an honorable mention in the same category for the daily QNS.com newsletter. Visit QNS.com to read daily news about Queens, and to sign up for our newsletters. Robert Pozarycki DA recovering from heart procedure Queens’ top prosecutor, District Attorney Richard A. Brown, is resting comfortably aft er undergoing what his offi ce called “a minimally invasive heart valve procedure” on April 10. Th e scheduled procedure took place at New York University Langone Medical Center in Manhattan and was conducted by Dr. Mathew R. Williams, who heads the medical center’s structural and heart valve program. Brown is now resting at the hospital and is expected to be released in a couple of days, according to his offi ce. Brown, 84, has been Queens district attorney since 1991, when he was appointed to the job by then-Governor Mario Cuomo. He’s been re-elected seven times over the last 25 years and counting, encompassing a period in which major crimes across the “World’s Borough” has fallen by 80 percent. A spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s offi ce told Th e Courier that Brown is still making the decisions even as he recovers from the procedure. Robert Pozarycki New Queens opera company set to debut Th e recently formed Queens Opera Th eatre will off er its fi rst concert ever at Flushing Town Hall on Saturday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. Th e brand-new troupe will present a roughly 90-minute showcase featuring music from two operas – Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto” – that members plan to perform during the inaugural season. Attendees can also expect to hear arias and duets from Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s “Die tote Stadt,” Puccini’s “Turandot” and Richard Wagner’s “Th e Flying Dutchman.” For the fi rst few years, the company will favor well-known operas that appeal to broad audiences, artistic director Andy Anderson explained. Once the troupe gains more traction, though, he wants to increase the number of shows and present modern, less well-known operas. Rob MacKay College Point’s fi rst junior high to occupy former Catholic school BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI [email protected] @smont76 College Point families will soon have a brand-new junior high school right in their own neighborhood. Th e new school, called JHS Q336, will be located at 124-06 14th Ave. — the former site of St. Fidelis School, which closed in 2013. Th e 507-seat junior high school will offi cially open in 2018 with a new incoming class of sixth-graders and will be designed and constructed by the NYC School Construction Authority (SCA). Th is will be the neighborhood’s fi rst public middle school. Councilman Paul Vallone said he received news that the Department of Education (DOE) consented to the new middle school just this week. “From day one, this has been a priority for our offi ce to do this for College Point,” Vallone told Th e Courier. “For decades, students in College Point traveled to JHS 185 and 194 in Flushing and Whitestone. Th ere’s never been an option for children in College Point.” Residents have advocated for a junior high school closer to home for years. In 2013, locals started a petition calling for a middle school at the St. Fidelis School site. Now, the concept is slated to become reality. “I don’t think we’re talking major renovations,” Vallone said of the school’s design. “It’s already a school, The former site of St. Fidelis in College Point will be used for a new public junior high school. so it made it a great place to use.” “College Point is a growing community and it is about time we have a local middle school for our children,” said Anne Marie Kanable, parent of a student at P.S. 129. “I am so relieved to not have to worry about what middle school my child would end up in and how far we would have to travel.” Community members are encouraged to attend the May 3 meeting of the District 25 Community Education Council to learn more about the new school and ask specifi c questions about registration and logistics. Th e meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at 30-48 Linden Pl. Photo: Suzanne Monteverdi/THE COURIER “SCA knows how important this new school is to the College Point community,” SCA president and CEO Lorraine Grillo said. “We appreciate Council member Vallone’s eff orts and SCA is dedicated to innovatively design and construct the much needed Q336.” “We are thrilled to give the College Point community a local middle school to call its own,” Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose said. “Th is new school will help alleviate overcrowding throughout the district and provide students from the community with the facilities and resources they need to succeed.” Scores left homeless after fi ve-alarm inferno in Elmhurst BY ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected] @robbpoz Flames engulfed the top of an Elmhurst apartment building during a fi ve-alarm inferno on the night of April 11 that displaced scores of residents and left nine fi refi ghters injured. Th e blaze ignited at about 6:30 p.m. on April 11 on the upper levels of the seven-story building on 94th Street near 56th Avenue, just a couple of blocks away from the Queens Center Mall. Flames spread rapidly through the cockloft , a small area between the ceiling and rooft op. More than 200 fi refi ghters are on the scene along with the 110th Precinct and EMS units. Eleven fi refi ghters suff ered minor injuries while battling the inferno, according to WPIX-TV. A plume of acrid black smoke could be scene for miles around. Hundreds of nearby residents poured out of their homes and crowded the streets to watch fi refi ghters work to bring then blaze under control. Th e FDNY deployed a drone to Black smoke billows out of the roof of a seven-story apartment building in Elmhurst on April 11. assess the fi re damage and found that all 10 apartments on the sixth fl oor sustained signifi cant damage, WABC-TV reported. According to the American Red Cross, 112 units inside the building remain vacated. It is providing relief to 144 adults and 31 children in 67 families, 15 of which required emergency shelter at nearby P.S. 13. Photo: Robert Pozarycki/THE COURIER “Our caseworkers are continuing to work with families and connect them with additional emergency assistance and support them with next steps,” according to Red Cross spokesperson Michael de Vulpillieres. Th e FDNY reported on Twitter that the blaze was brought under control at about 10:32 p.m.; the cause is under investigation.
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