14 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 27, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Year In Review • JANUARY COMPILED BY BILL PARRY
Divine Wisdom Academy
closes Bayside campus
Due to declining enrollment and changing demographics, Divine Wisdom
Catholic Academy consolidated its Bayside and Douglaston campuses this year.
Bayside students were invited to continue their education at the Douglaston campus
(which was once St. Anastasia School) during the 2018-19 school year. Total enrollment
at Divine Wisdom had decreased by 10 percent in the last year. Th is declining
enrollment led to a projected fi nancial defi cit of $325,000 for the 2017-2018 school
year. Th e Bayside and Douglaston campuses are about two miles apart. Th e merger
was not expected to impose signifi cant transportation inconveniences for enrolled
families. Divine Wisdom was established in September 2009 to serve the parishes
of St. Anastasia, Saint Robert Bellarmine, American Martyrs and Saint Paul Chong
Ha-Sang. It originally operated out of the former St. Anastasia School, but expanded
to the former St. Robert Bellarmine campus in Bayside in 2013.
Long Island City makes fi nal
list for Amazon HQ2
Aft er sift ing through 238 proposals, e-commerce giant Amazon whittled down its
choices for a second headquarters to 20 locations — and Long Island City was one
of them. Months earlier, the city chose four neighborhoods to pitch to Amazon —
Midtown West, Long Island City, Brooklyn Tech Triangle and Lower Manhattan.
Th ese places were chosen because they met two key criteria: they have the square footage
available for development (8.1 million square feet) and are close to public transportation
and major airports. In the proposal, Long Island City was described as a “creative,
mixed-use neighborhood” and “the city’s industrial innovation center.”
First murder of 2018 in Richmond Hill
A 26-year-old Richmond Hill woman became the city’s fi rst reported homicide
on New Year’s Day. Police said the victim, Stacy Loknath, was found with multiple
stab wounds inside her home on 103rd Avenue near 113th Street at 1:09 p.m. on
Jan. 1, police said. Loknath, a mother of two, who was stabbed multiple times in the
back. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene in what investigators said was
part of a murder-suicide. Earlier in the morning, police found her 42-year-old husband
hanging from a tree about a mile away in Forest Park. Th e husband was identifi
ed as Vinny Loknath, whose body about two hours before offi cers from the 106th
Precinct found Stacy Loknath dead in Richmond Hill. Investigators said the couple
were in an abusive relationship.
Bayside presses city on Fort Totten plans
A Bayside-based lawmaker called for transparency as the city continued to have conversations
to expand its presence in Fort Totten. In a letter addressed to Mayor Bill de
Blasio on Jan. 11, state Senator Tony Avella raised concerns with the city’s “serious lack
of information” in reference to certain project propositions by the Fire Department
and Department of Corrections (DOC). Th e FDNY proposed building a wind turbine
at the Bay Terrace location, while DOC considered using it as the site of its new training
academy. Aft er an alleged runaround from city agencies, Avella fi led a Freedom of
Information (FOIL) request for documents pertaining to both proposals. Fort Totten
— formally an active U.S. Army installation in the Bay Terrace section of the neighborhood
— is currently used by the U.S. Army Reserve, NYPD and FDNY. Certain portions
are designated public park areas.
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