FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com APRIL 21, 2016 • THE COURIER SUN 3 City follows through on lawmaker’s request and repairs crumbling Queens overpass By Anthon y Giu dice [email protected]/@A_GiudiceReport As the future of the Rockaway Beach line remains in question, one thing is not up for debate: the deteriorating stanchions are now much safer thanks to recent repairs. During a press conference in December of last year, state Senator Joseph Addabbo called on city agencies to repair the stanchions of Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) line at the intersection of Yellowstone Boulevard and Kessel Street on the Forest Hills/Rego Park border, which last saw train service in the 1960s. Addabbo returned to the site on Thursday afternoon with Community Board 6 (CB 6) District Manager Frank Gulluscio to thank the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) for answering the call and making the repairs. “The disrepair these structures were in just a few months ago posed a serious hazard to the community,” Addabbo said. “This rail line may be abandoned, but the structure still stands over an active roadway and pedestrian underpass, putting thousands of people in danger as the rust-covered stanchions that support it were crumbling more and more each day. It was time to finally shed some light on the hazardous state these stanchions were in before a preventable tragedy occurred.” Earlier this month DCAS came and added taller concrete bases to the stanchions, providing for a more stable structure and mending the gaping holes that rusted through the metal pillars. They also painted the portions of the stanchions to make them more visually appealing. “It was a major concern in Community Board 6, without a doubt,” Gulluscio said. “And you can see, they wouldn’t have done all this work if it wasn’t needed. Obviously it was needed … it’s better to be proactive than to be reactive after somebody gets hurt and a situation occurs.” Three other locations along the rail line — 93rd Avenue, 103rd Avenue and 101st Avenue — are in disrepair as well and Addabbo plans to work with city agencies to ensure that they are also repaired. QNS/Photo by Anthony Giudice State Senator Joseph Addabbo (right) and Frank Gulluscio, district manager for Community Board 6, praised the city for repairing a crumbling overpass in Queens. KEW GARDENS PRIDES IT SELF IN A BRANDNEW TREE-THEMED COMMUNITY MURAL By Alan Burton [email protected]/@QueensCourier The community of Kew Gardens received its second city-commissioned mural on April 16 as part of the NYC Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Arts Community Commissions program. The mural entitled “Seasons of Kew Gardens,” was installed along the barrier wall of an LIRR overpass on 80th Road between Austin and Grenfell streets by artist and educator Carla Reyes with help from a number of community artists, volunteers, and her own students from Stephen T. Mather Arts & Craftsmanship High School in Manhattan. The theme of the installation is intended to be a tribute to the neighborhood’s namesake, the famous Kew Botanical Gardens in England, and features a variety of tree species that can be found in Kew Gardens’ Forest Park — the third largest park in NYC — as they go through their seasonal cycle. The mural covered the graffiti that previously occupied the overpass and will join the Kew Gardens Cinemas Park community mural as part of a larger community project to establish Kew Gardens as “an art community,” as Kew Gardens Community Coordinator Rosemary Sherman explains. The mural is entirely hand-painted and set to stay up for at least a year, per the DOT Art Program’s guidelines. The DOT Art Program was launched in 2008 and aims to enliven the cityscape by contracting community-based artists and organizations to create and install multimedia projects on throughout the city’s streets.
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