14 The Courier sun • JULY 31, 2014 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com New bocce courts don’t make the grade: players BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ @ericjankiewicz [email protected] Juniper Valley Park’s three new bocce courts opened on July 23 with a ribbon cutting ceremony and talk of meatballs and spaghetti. But for the players, most of whom are older Italians, the new courts don’t meet their standards. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said that the new courts, which replaced two older ones, were “grade A.” But many of the players present during the ceremony weren’t such generous graders. “It looks nice. They spent a lot of money on this,” John Pistone, 62, said. “So I give them an A for effort but for efficiency, I give them an F.” Pistone and his fellow bocce players complained that the new $850,000 courts weren’t leveled correctly and that the design of the overhead shades didn’t prevent rain from soaking the courts. The bulk of the money came from Katz’s office, and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley allocated another $50,000. Queens Park Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski boasted that the shades placed on all three courts would keep the players cool. But Frank Trocchia said the shades were too small to provide any real protection from the sun. “We get here in the morning and by 11 o’clock it’s too hot for us to even play,” Trocchia, 64, said. “They didn’t consult us on this design.” Trocchia and Pistone then proceeded to argue with each other over the ineffective shades and the unbalanced field and which one truly made the bocce courts flawed. Vandals damage NYS Pavilion BY BENJAMIN FANG [email protected] Vandals recently caused mischief at the storied New York State Pavilion, setting a stolen van ablaze and damaging its terrazzo map, according to a member of an advocacy group for the structure. John Piro, co-founder of the New York State Pavilion Paint Project, a local group dedicated to restoring the 1964-1965 World’s Fair figure in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, said the delinquents were causing havoc. “They came in with a stolen van, broke the lock of the park and set the van on fire,” said Piro, who saw the aftermath on the morning of Monday, July 21, after the Parks Department saw it that Sunday. He said they also burned the tarp on the gravel, knocked down steel beams and even damaged what’s left of the Pavilion’s terrazzo map on its ground by using a cinder block to smash the map’s corner panel. “It’s heartbreaking, after all the work we’ve done,” Piro said. “Hopefully it will never happen again.” The incident, first reported by the New York Daily News, comes at the heels of the World’s Fair 50th anniversary celebration just two months ago. The Pavilion opened to the public for the first time in decades this April to commemorate the historic event. Last November, the Parks Department released plans to fix the relic, with cost estimates starting at $43 million. Borough President Melinda Katz created a task force of local officials and civic and community leaders to construct a plan for the Pavilion’s future. For now, Piro said he is just grateful nothing worse happened. “They could have caused a lot more damage,” he said. “Now we have to try to do something preventative.” He said they’re looking into something along the lines of an alarm. The New York State Pavilion’s terrazzo map was damaged after vandals broke into the structure, according to John Piro of the New York State Pavilion Paint Project. The Parks Department said it inspected the site and only found minimal damage. “This will not have any effect on our efforts to stabilize Photo courtesy of John Piro and preserve the New York State Pavilion,” parks officials said. The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment. The Parks Department didn’t respond to the criticism. THE COURIER/Photo by Eric Jankiewicz
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