for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com april 18, 2013 • The CourieR SUN 3 Community Board worried over chemical concerns BY TERE NCE M. CULLEN tcullen@queenscourier.com The cleanup of polluted soil in Ozone Park has some residents worried toxic chemicals have spread throughout the neighborhood. End Zone Industries will begin a longawaited project to remove just a few inches of tainted soil from under eight storage bays under the abandoned Rockaway Beach LIRR line. The bays are between 101st and 103rd Avenues, from north to south, and 99th to 100th Streets, east to west. Company representatives briefed Community Board 9 about the project at its April 9 meeting – with some board members upset about the project. David Austin, project manager for AECOM, a consulting firm for End Zone, said major construction will take about three to four months. The “dirty dirt,” Austin said, would be securely removed from the garage bays in bags and transferred to a landfill on sealed trucks. There will also be air monitors running about 12 hours a day, should THE COURIER/Photo by Terence M. Cullen Tainted soil under garage bays between 101st and 103rd Avenue will soon be removed. any contaminants make it into the air. But board member Etienne David Adorno said he was worried that the monitors would only alert officials, not do anything to prevent or clean up. “So if there’s a contaminant released into the air, then all it tells us is ‘Hey, a contaminant was just released into the air,’” he said. “So it doesn’t really do us any good once it’s in the air.” A system of pipes would also be installed to take spoiled air out of the soil, through a filtration system and back into the ground, Austin said. But concerns over a spread chemical, Trichloroethylene (TCE), business disruption and other concerns had board members skeptical about the project. TCE is an organic chemical that’s been used in cleaning solvents, paint thinner and pepper spray, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Vincent Evangelista, whose podiatry office is nearby the cleanup, expressed concern over the TCE-tainted brown water about 30 feet under the surface. Evangelista asked Austin and End Zone representatives if the contaminated soil, deemed by End Zone to be non-hazardous, immediately stopped outside of the allotted bays. Austin acknowledged the soil could have spread to other parts of the neighborhood, but most of it has not been tested. “There’s always unknowns when you dig underground and into dirt,” he said. Testers only examined the soil under the eight bays, as required by the state’s Department of Environment Conservation (DEC). It’s a matter the board would have to take up with the DEC to get the rest of the neighborhood tested, Austin said. CHARLES PARK TO GET A POLISH BY TERE NCE M. CULLEN tcullen@queenscourier.com Frank M. Charles Memorial Park is getting spruced up. With Sandy debris lingering nearly six months after the storm, Councilmember Eric Ulrich has partnered with the Doe Fund to help clean up the community park, which is run under the auspices of by Gateway National Recreation Area. Nine “men in blue” from the Doe Fund, which finds work for homeless men and women, will help remove debris in what is considered a neighborhood park, although it’s under the National Park Service (NPS) umbrella. Ulrich said he reached out to George McDonald, president and founder of the Doe Fund, after coverage of the park’s worsened condition following the storm. “This was a reaction to the published newspaper reports about the terrible conditions in Charles Park,” Ulrich said. The councilmember said further pressure had to be put on NPS to secure that Charles Park and other parts of Gateway get the same attention that parks across the country do. “It’s an absolute disgrace,” Ulrich said of the delayed clean up, adding it should not have taken a storm like Sandy to bring the park’s conditions to the public eye. “The federal government has to live up to their obligation.” McDonald, who partnered with Ulrich to bring workers to Broad Channel after the storm, said the program won’t only clean up the park, but give the crew a second chance. “For the past 25 years, New Yorkers have been so generous to The Doe Fund and to the ‘men in blue’—helping their fellow New Yorkers to re-establish their careers and become fathers to their children,” McDonald said. “We are grateful for the opportunity to give back. I thank Councilmember Ulrich for thinking of us.” Community Board 10 recently voiced opposition to a proposal from Gateway and NYC Parks Department that listed Charles Park as a possible site for concession stands, bike terminals or kayak launching bays. Board members first want the park to be cleaned up, and get more outreach from Gateway, before anything else comes in. “It’s my understanding that Doe fund is volunteering labor to do it, which is certainly commendable,” said board chair Elizabeth Braton. “However, it does not remove the obligation of the Parks Service to provide continuous, ongoing maintenance at the facilities they are responsible for.” SCANDAL FALLOUT Colleagues point to alleged affair as reason for job BY MELISSA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com The 23-year-old Queens law student embroiled in a sex scandal with embattled Councilmember Dan Halloran was a hardworking scholar who wanted to get ahead, sources said. “I’m sure she was an excellent worker, but she was really pursuing a local political, professional career at that point,” said a college friend who did not want to be named. “I’m sure that’s all it was.” Meaghan Mapes was ensnared last week in a New York Post exclusive, which alleged she had an affair with her married ex-boss between 2010 and 2011. She was 21 at the time. The former aide from Howard Beach was making $30,000 a year as Halloran’s deputy chief of staff, according to city records. She was hired shortly after campaigning for his 2009 City Council election, sources said. “I’m sure this so-called affair had much to do with her getting the staff position,” said an ex-colleague. Mapes, who is pursuing a law degree at the University of Virginia, could not be reached for comment. Calls made to her parents’ home did not go through. The St. John’s University alum and ex-sorority girl studied politics and government. She was also in the school’s social justice-based Ozanam Scholars program. A student of the program who knew her said many who campaigned for Halloran, for longer than Mapes had, were snubbed for the high-status job. “They were upset,” a source said. “She put a lot of time into her political career, but we were surprised she got that position so easily.” Another legislative boss, former State Senator Serphin Maltese, said Mapes got ahead based on merit. “We’re very proud of her,” he said. “She was a very enthusiastic, very, very capable person. She really is, and she still is as far as I know.” Mapes was an unpaid intern for Maltese at age 15 and skyrocketed to his deputy chief of staff about three years later, according to the former lawmaker. The Courier featured Mapes as a “Star of Queens” in February 2010, two months after Halloran hired her as a top aide. She handled constituent cases and accompanied the legislator to events. The go-getter said she taught homeless people, helped disadvantaged youth and raked in more than 200 hours of community service a year. According to her St. John’s freshman profile, Mapes dreamed of working for social justice in local politics. Her most recent boss, Halloran, is charged in a bribery scheme for conspiring to rig the mayoral election. Mapes, in 2010, told The Courier that people did not take her seriously because of her young age. She also said Halloran had taught her a lot. “Even now, people look at me like an intern, and this has been hard to overcome,” she said. “It’s hard to gain people’s respect after their first initial reaction.” Courtesy Photo Meaghan Mapes is pictured here in May 2011, before she was embroiled in a sex scandal.
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