FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 16, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Oswald Stoddart, father of
Resorts World NYC exec, dies
Beloved husband, father, and grandfather Oswald
Stoddart passed away at the age of 82-years-old.
He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Joyce,
his children, Michelle and Gail, and his grandchildren,
Jonathan and Savanna. Michelle serves as director of public
relations and community development for Resorts World
Casino New York City, and previously served at the Queens
Economic Development Corporation.
Born in Jamaica, West Indies, Oswald Stoddart grew up
on a sugar cane plantation that he worked on from a young
age. A man of service, Stoddart would later go on to work
for the National Housing Trust and served as the head of his
local chapter of the Rotary Club in Westmoreland, Jamaica.
As an adult, Stoddart moved to the United States and
began to work for Circuit City. Aft er an accident led him to
early retirement, Stoddart devoted his time to assisting in
raising his grandchildren. A true family man, there wasn’t
anything that Stoddart wouldn’t do for his family.
A lifelong fan of jazz and racecar driving, Stoddart was
always the life of the party. Members of the community
would oft en approach him to debate topics. He interacted
with the community and he will be missed by many.
Funeral services for Stoddart will take place on Saturday,
Aug. 18 at Grace Baptist Church, located at 52 South 6th
Ave., Mt. Vernon, NY 10550. Th e viewing will begin at 10
a.m. with the funeral service to follow at 11 a.m.
Queens Courier staff
Robber gets 10 years for
Fresh Meadows heist, other
robberies
A Far Rockaway man who is connected to a series armed
robberies on Long Island and a heist at a Fresh Meadows
bank will spend over 10 years in jail.
Pedro Benitez, 21, pleaded guilty to armed bank robbery
and brandishing a fi rearm in furtherance of a crime
of violence on March 20. He was sentenced on Aug. 9 to
130 months in prison followed by three years of supervised
release and $71,395 in restitution.
According to charges, on Sept. 20, 2017, Benitez entered a
Queens County Savings Bank in Fresh Meadows, pulled out
a gun and ordered customers and employees of the bank to
the fl oor. He then gained access to the area behind the tellers’
counter and stole over $50,000 in cash that had been
delivered to the bank earlier in the day and was laid out on
a table in a room adjacent to the teller’s area.
Benitez also admitted to participating in three bank robberies
in Nassau County last year. In each robbery, Benitez
entered the bank armed with a gun and robbed the employees
of the banks’ cash. In total, Benitez and the crew stole
over $70,000 from four banks between July and September
of 2017.
Two other members of the bank robbery crew previously
pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Two additional
members of the robbery crew are currently awaiting trial.
Emily Davenport
Photo by Jenna Bagcal/THE COURIER
New ‘Fort Totten Conservancy’
is a mystery to Bayside folks
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com/ @jenna_bagcal
Elected offi cials and community
members in Bayside expressed
concern over the Fort Totten Park
Conservancy, which they said was
established without community
input.
On Aug. 13, state Senator
Tony Avella held a press conference
in his Bayside offi ce with
Assemblyman Edward Braunstein
and members from Community
Board 7, Friends of Fort Totten
Park and the Bayside Historical
Society. According to the group,
they were individually approached
by a woman named Ann Sklar,
who said she started the park conservancy
as a 501(c)3 nonprofi t
organization.
“In April I had a woman
come into my offi ce and say
she represents the Fort Totten
Conservancy and my fi rst reaction
was, I didn’t know there was one.
I knew there was a Friends of Fort
Totten but I never heard of this,”
Avella said.
Th e senator said that he questioned
Sklar about the motives of
the organization and its members.
He quickly found out that she did
not live in the district and formed
the organization without community
input.
Warren Schreiber, a co-founder
of Friends of Fort Totten said
that Sklar told him she lived
in Riverdale in the Bronx but
planned to move out of New York
City to the village of Larchmont in
Westchester County.
Upon setting up a broader
meeting with Bayside community
groups and the NYC Parks
Department, all of whom Sklar
had spoken to in some capacity,
they discovered that the woman
was attempting to create a job for
herself and requesting a $100,000
a year salary. According to them,
the Parks Department seemed
to be giving the Fort Totten
Conservancy “tacit support.”
“Th at lady did outreach to us
and my answer was I was not
going to speak to her because as
soon as I knew that she had no
bearing with the Friends of Fort
Totten, I didn’t understand why
an outside agency would be moving
forward as well as the Parks
Department giving her any credibility
at all,” said Eugene T. Kelty,
chair of Community Board 7.
According to Joe Branzetti, the
co-president of Friends of Fort
Totten, Sklar told him that she
owns an antique business on
125th Street and First Avenue
in Harlem and a similar shop in
Maspeth. Th e group’s shared suspicion
was that she wanted to form
the Conservancy in order to take
down the old buildings in the area,
salvage parts from them and sell
what she could at her stores.
Concerned Council members,
Assembly members and community
organizations addressed
a letter to Parks Commissioner
Mitchell J. Silver and Mayor Bill
de Blasio in June asking them to
reach out to the community before
“forming an organization to repair
the buildings at Fort Totten.”
“As you may be aware, the Fort
Totten Park Conservancy is an independent
entity and does not have
any formal relationship with NYC
Parks. We understand your concern
for how the organization was
formed, yet their mission is in line
with our common interests for the
park. We hope there may be a way
forward for such likeminded people
to work together, in close collaboration
with elected offi cials and the
local community, for the betterment
of Fort Totten Park,” said Queens
Parks Commissioner Dorothy
Lewandowski in a July letter.
President of the Bayside
Historical Society Paul
DiBenedetto said that the existing
organizations and NFPs (notfor
profi ts) should have been considered
when creating the conservancy.
“I hate the fact that the buildings
are not being used, but a
lot of them are being used and
being used properly by city agencies
and in our case, a nonprofit,”
DiBenedetto said. “You need
to work with the people; you don’t
just go and do something and step
on us.”
From l-r: Joe Branzetti, Paul DiBenedetto, Warren Schreiber, Eugene Kelty
/
