4 THE COURIER SUN • DECEMBER 22, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com Huge sidewalk repair project completed at this public housing complex in south Queens BY ROBERT POZARYCKI rpozarycki@qns.com @robbpoz No one will be tripping on the sidewalks of South Jamaica anytime soon. Repairs to sidewalks in and around the South Jamaica II Houses were completed last week in a ceremony attended by a bevy of local elected officials and city representatives. More than 12,000 square feet of sidewalk pathways were redone during the project that began in November. Crews also upgraded pedestrian ramps at three corners and repaired approximately 523 linear feet of curb. The six-week project removed a host of trip hazards that the more than 3,000 residents of the complex faced every day. State Senators Leroy Comrie and James Sanders joined Councilman Ruben Wills and Assemblywoman Vivian Cook, along with other attendees, in shoveling one final load of top soil into tree pits near the South Jamaica II Houses to mark the project’s completion. According to the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Queens borough commissioner, Nicole Garcia, the project is part of the city’s renewed commitment to repairing sidewalks citywide. The city more than Photos courtesy of NYC Department of Transportation Before (left) and after pictures of the sidewalks outside the South Jamaica II Houses. doubled its annual sidewalk repair budget to $46 million (it had been $20 million), including $3 million in repairs focused on sidewalk repairs at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complexes such as the South Jamaica II Houses. “For DOT, that translated into millions of dollars dedicated to improving the quality of life for New York City residents by providing safer sidewalks,” Garcia said. “We owe nothing less to the thousands of New Yorkers who call the Jamaica Houses home.” The project was completed by the city’s Department of Design and Construction in conjunction with the DOT and the NYCHA. More than 12,000 miles of sidewalk across the five boroughs fall under the jurisdiction of the DOT. Keeping a promise to diversify the teacher pool Queens College and the Queens South Field Support Center has received a $1.6 million grant from New York state to develop a program aimed at developing the next generation of schoolteachers. Supported by Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman, the grant establishes the Teacher Opportunity Corps in south Queens to help increase diversity among the teaching pool in New York City by providing extra training and coaching to talented candidates. It aims to address the goals in President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative. Pictured from the partnering organizations are, left to right, (standing), Bryant Brown, Support Services, Queens South Field Support Center (QSFSC); Pierre Galvez, director, English for New Learners, QSFSC; (seated), Marlene Wilks, executive director, QSFSC; Michelle Singleton, director, Special Education, QSFSC; Jennifer Dull, borough instructional lead, Special Education, QSFSC; Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman; Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, president, Queens College; Edwina Branch-Smith, professor, Fieldwork and Student Teaching Experiences, Queens College. Creepy high school coach in Queens guilty of sending lewd texts & videos to girl: DA BY ROBERT POZARYCKI rpozarycki@qns.com @robbpoz Photo via Google Maps A former coach and teacher at Richmond Hill High School has been convicted of sending lewd videos and text messages to a teenage student. A former volleyball coach at Richmond Hill High School was convicted this week of charges that he sent X-rated material to an underage student, including a video of himself masturbating, prosecutors announced. Luis Rodriguez, 45, a resident of Freeport, Long Island, was found guilty of charges including attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, disseminating indecent materials to minors and endangering the welfare of a child. “The defendant was a coach and a teacher — someone whom parents trusted their children would be safe with. This man, however, violated that trust,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement on Dec. 13. “This coach used an extracurricular school activity to prey on this young victim.” Rodriguez coached the girl’s volleyball team and was an attendance teacher at Richmond Hill High School, located at 89-30 114th St., in October 2014, when he first made lewd contact with a then-15-year-old girl and member of the team. According to Brown, Rodriguez contacted the girl multiple times through text message or the FaceTime video chat and sent her sexually explicit messages. He asked the teenager to inappropriately touch herself and to take and send him selfies of her naked. In one instance, law enforcement sources said, Rodriguez expressed his desire to have sex with the girl and also wanted her to give him oral sex. During the same period, authorities noted, Rodriguez sent to the victim’s cellphone a video of him masturbating. Members of the 102nd Precinct Detective Squad, after being alerted to the lewd activity, arrested Rodriguez on Nov. 7, 2014. He now faces up to seven years behind bars when he is sentenced on Jan. 12, 2017. Photo courtesy of Queens College
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