FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 30, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Cardozo bomb threat
‘not credible’: cops
Classes were disrupted on Monday morning
at a Bayside school that received an online bomb
threat, according to authorities.
According to police, the principal at Benjamin
Cardozo High School contacted police at 7:13
a.m. on Nov. 27 aft er receiving an email from an
unknown sender threatening to bomb the school
located at 57th Avenue and 223rd Street.
Law enforcement sources said the threat was
reported before school started following the
Th anksgiving weekend. Students and staff who
arrived aft er the threat was received were taken to
nearby evacuation sites as the investigation proceeded,
according to the school’s website.
Classes resumed as normal at 9:15 a.m. aft er the
investigation on campus was completed and the
threat was deemed not credible, sources said. Th e
school fi led an aggravated harassment complaint
against an unidentifi ed perpetrator.
Suzanne Monteverdi
Broken window helps
Flushing burglar get
into home
Cops are searching for a suspect who broke into
a home in the Auburndale section of Flushing earlier
this week.
On Nov. 27 at around 11 p.m., law enforcement
sources said, an unknown perpetrator entered
a home in the area of 42nd Avenue and 191st
Street through a broken window. Th e suspect then
removed multiple watches from the location and
fl ed the scene.
Th e homeowner was not home at the time of the
incident, according to police. Authorities could not
provide a description of the suspect at this time.
Th e incident was reported to the 111th Precinct.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident
is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers
Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish,
888-57-PISTA (74782). Th e public can also submit
their tips by logging onto nypdcrimestoppers.
com or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES)
then enter TIP577. All calls and messages are kept
confi dential.
Suzanne Monteverdi
Schools should serve
diverse meals: Weprin
A Queens lawmaker is leading the call for a
more diverse selection of meal options in the city’s
schools.
Assemblyman David Weprin is sponsoring legislation
to mandate that kosher and halal meals be
made available to students with religious dietary
restrictions upon request in New York City’s
schools.
Th e eastern Queens representative said the
change would service the growing population of
students of faith in public schools, allow students
to exercise their faith and increase cultural awareness
and understanding.
“If kosher and halal meals are already provided
in prisons, they absolutely should be provided
in our schools,” Weprin said. “Our state is one of
incredible religious and ethnic diversity, and it is
our duty to provide for all of those living in New
York. Th e students of our state should not have to
choose between a nutritious meal and their religion.”
Suzanne Monteverdi
Photos by Suzanne Monteverdi/QNS
Whitestone residents want answers
on major development project
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Aft er uncovering more changes to
a long-disputed Whitestone development
project, residents and a
local elected offi cial are calling for
increased transparency from a state
agency.
On Nov. 27, state Senator Tony
Avella and a group of local residents
met at the Waterpointe site at 151-
45 Sixth Rd. to voice alarm with
recent updates from state offi cials.
Previously an industrial zone, the
nearly 12-acre site has been a topic
of concern in the neighborhood for
a number of years. Edgestone Group
LLC, the site’s current owner, purchased
the land in 2012 for $11 million
and originally sought to build
97 two-family townhouse homes
and nine additional single-family
houses at the site. However, the
developers changed their plans to
52 single-family homes aft er protests
from the community.
Currently, Edgestone is working
to remediate the site — which is
covered with toxic soil — under the
oversight of the state’s Department
of Environmental Conservation
(DEC) through the voluntary
Brownfi eld Cleanup Program. Th e
program is meant to “encourage
private-sector cleanups of brownfi
elds and to promote their redevelopment
as a means to revitalize economically
blighted communities,”
according to the DEC website.
In late September, Community
Board 7 received an “Explanation
of Signifi cant Diff erence” fact sheet
from DEC informing them that the
city agency has modifi ed the cleanup
agreement with developers. Aft er
inspecting the developer’s remediation
work, DEC determined that
the site is slated to achieve a “Track
4 restricted residential cleanup”
instead of the initially agreed upon
“Track 2 residential cleanup.”
Board members who noted
that the new Track 4 designation
restricted the developer’s ability to
build the agreed upon single-family
homes reached out to the city agency
with their concerns. Th e DEC
issued a revised sheet two days later,
omitting the “single-family housing
is prohibited” language.
Still, according to Avella, the
community was not involved in the
discussion to allow these “signifi -
cant and detrimental changes to the
remediation plan.”
“Using an inappropriate fi ll could
have serious repercussions for whoever
ends up living at the site and
could restrict how homeowners are
allowed to use their own property,”
the lawmaker said. “Th e community
board and Whitestone as a whole
seem to have been kept in the dark
about recent signifi cant changes to
this remediation plan, but today we
are demanding that DEC give us the
respect we deserve and be transparent
about what has happened.”
Kim Cody, the president of the
Greater Whitestone Taxpayers
Civic Association, told reporters
that the change “falls directly on
DEC.”
“Th e DEC should have had
inspectors on this site when this soil
was being brought in and it should
have been stopped immediately,”
Cody said.
According to the DEC, records
of the DEC’s fi ndings and project
plans are available at the nearby
Whitestone Library. However,
lifelong Whitestone resident Robert
LoScalzo claims the newest records
at the site are about two years old.
Th e site was originally purchased
for $25 million in 2005 by developer
Bayrock Group, who later went
bankrupt aft er they were fi ned by
DEC for transporting toxic soil into
the already contaminated site.
Under the current plans, developers
are required to install a minimum
two-foot cover in the ground,
with a demarcation barrier between
the fi ll and the cover. Th is segment
of the project is expected to be completed
by the end of this year.
A sub-slab depressurization system
(SSD) system will also have to
be installed in each new building
erected on the lot. Th e mechanism
will read for any harmful active
vapors released into the air.
QNS reached out to DEC for comment
and is awaiting a response.