Board 4 Confronts Issue Of Disappearing Recycling Bins
BY THOMAS COGAN

Community Board 4's April meeting, at Flanders Fields Veterans of Foreign Wars Post on 108th Street, was brisk. In 40 minutes, Chairman Louis Walker, District Manager Richard Italiano and the members handled matters such as street permits and liquor licenses, heard from an outside speaker and calmed a remonstrance by a member who believed a certain situation in the 110th Police Precinct could become dangerous if the board didn't address it immediately.

Walker made no report other than to welcome Robert Rothschild as a new member of the board and announce that six members had not been reappointed. Italiano had a few items to talk about, including the fact that a Queens Visitors' Center has been inaugurated at the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst. He said also that the small park and playground on Hoffman Drive, just south of Queens Boulevard, had been designated by the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to receive a series of special recycling bins, which had recently been put in place. A board member informed him, however, that two days after their installation, the containers had disappeared, their place taken by some old waste bins in bad condition. The district manager then said that on Tuesday, April 17, there would be a street renaming ceremony on 94th Street and 52nd Avenue, honoring Florry Burrell, who moved into Elmhurst in 1952 and stayed for the rest of her life. In that half century, she worked at or volunteered for several jobs in the community, from crossing guard to school board member, serving as the latter for 35 years. As part of her working life, she was a shop steward for District Council 37.

Committee reports followed. A bylaws committee motion for approval of recent revisions of the by-laws passed by acclamation. The matter of the Corona Community Ambulance Corps was next. It is holding an open house Saturday, May 26 at its headquarters, 104-38 47th Ave. There was to be a motion on street activity permits that would allow the corps to close a four-block stretch from 104th to 108th Streets, but objections from several residents along those streets forced reconsideration. Dave Moretti of the corps said the plan for closing the street was cancelled because nobody wanted to alienate the very people who were invited to celebrate at the open house. "We're good neighbors," he said, though he hopes the neighborhood can be persuaded to allow a street closing next year. The ULURP and zoning committee heard from an outside speaker, Thomas Lowenhaupt, late of Community Board 3, who spoke of the Campaign for Community-Based Planning, which, as its name suggests, seeks a broader-based community approach to planning, in contrast to what Lowenhaupt called "top-down planning" imposed on communities by authorities. Citing his own district, Lowenhaupt said that the plan he proposes would more effectively address vital local concerns, such as the growing Mexican population, to whom the system currently in place pays no heed. His appearance before the board was his first venture in seeking an endorsement of the campaign, which was begun in Board 3 and heretofore has been endorsed only there. Board 4 made note of the plan's fledgling status and tabled a motion to approve.

The dozen or so restaurants applying for liquor licenses as new, renewing or reconsidered applicants were mainly successful, such stalwarts as Ping's on Queens Boulevard or La Fusta on Baxter Avenue gaining approval anew. But Las Cazuelas on Hampton Street and the Music Box Bar on 74th Street were among those whose applications did not bear scrutiny well and were disapproved as being either too noisy or, in at least one instance, merely a front for a former owner whose license had been revoked.

Apart from such restaurants, another concern, according to Tom McKenzie of the board, is that of the disappearing guns at the 110th Precinct. Two guns went missing from the precinct's weapons room more than two years ago, McKenzie said, and he can get no word on the reason why they disappeared or about attempts to get them back. He asked District Attorney Richard Brown about it last June, he said, and Brown told him he would investigate, though no further information has come his way since, McKenzie said. He fears the trail has grown cold. But Lucy Schilero, also of the board, said she is aware that the precinct is quite distressed about it and that an internal affairs investigation is proceeding. McKenzie wasn't content to let it rest there but the board was, saying there was nothing more it could do about the case.

The next meeting of Community Board 4 is on Tuesday, May 1, at a site to be determined.