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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

A large family that has been tormented by an infestation of cockroaches in its Queensbridge Houses apartment since July 2016 is now at the top of a waiting list for a new apartment in Queens, according to the New York City Housing Authority, but five-bedroom apartments are rare in public housing, with only one available in the borough last year.

Warda Ibrahim, 37, and her husband Tarek Ali, 51,have been offered, and are open to accepting, an available apartment in Staten Island for a more immediate move with their nine children, who range in age from 2 months to 19 years.

“We have been working with the family to provide them an apartment as soon as we can,” NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake said. “While we waited for an apartment to become available, we continued to respond to all repair requests, including sending an exterminator this weekend.”

It was the third time exterminators had treated the apartment since August, according to NYCHA, which saw its second-in-command hand in his resignation. NYCHA General Manager Michael Kelly became the third official to step down since the agency became mired in scandal after it violated federal standards requiring lead paint inspections.

“It was a decision at a natural point,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told New York 1 on Monday. “It’s a natural point where people have to make a decision about their own life. Michael Kelly did some very good work and very important work for NYCHA. It was a good moment for him to move on.”

The mayor stuck by his embattled NYCHA chairwoman, Shola Olatoye, who is the target of a probe by the city’s Department of Investigation, which is looking into allegations she lied about the lead paint inspections while testifying under oath at the City Council. Olatoye claimed that inspections of 4,200 apartments were carried out by workers with proper Department of Housing and Urban Development certification.

DOI found that the inspectors did not have HUD certification.

“The chair was truthful and relied on the facts provided to her. She was told staff had been trained,” said Blake, the NYCHA spokeswoman. “We will evaluate DOI’s claims to understand their assertions here,”

Olatoye could face a misdemeanor charge or face fines of up to $1,000.

“Shola Olatoye has run the Housing Authority for four years, took an almost bankrupt organization, righted its finances, made it stable, created a plan to invest in the future,” de Blasio said Wednesday morning on WNYW’s “Good Day New York.” “When you look at the head of an organization who has steadily, consistently, improved a very troubled organization, guess what? She needs to stay for the good of those residents, and I don’t care how many people feel differently.

“I’ve gone into those buildings. I talk to these residents. It’s my responsibility to make sure they are safe. She has helped make them safer; she has helped to protect them.”

Meanwhile, the mayor appointed Vito Mustaciuolo to replace Kelly as NYCHA acting general manager, overseeing the maintenance of all developments. It was Kelly who gave de Blasio and other elected officials a tour of the boiler room when heat and hot water failed at the Woodside Houses as Winter Storm Grayson slammed the city Jan. 4.

De Blasio announced last week that the city will invest $13 million to help NYCHA respond rapidly to future heating emergencies and replace failing equipment.

“This investment will address some of our most problematic infrastructure through this recent cold spell and also increase staffing so we can respond to outages faster,” Olatoye said. “This support from Mayor de Blasio will literally keep the heat on in thousands of NYCHA homes and is critical in our efforts to improve service for residents.”

While the heat failure at the Woodside Houses was due to low gas pressure, and National Grid sent crews to resolve that issue, boiler failure was to blame at the sprawling Redfern Houses in Far Rockaway, where nearly 1,500 residents were left in the cold.

This fall, NYCHA broke ground on a new elevated boiler plan that will include a new community center and day care center as part of a $123 million investment under the agency’s Office of Recovery and Resilience as part of a Superstorm Sandy-related grant.

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.

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By Mark Hallum

TimesLedger Newspapers

The recently released Fix NYC panel report to enact Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s congestion-pricing proposal calls for sweeping change to how cars are charged to enter Manhattan’s most gridlocked sections while keeping historically toll-free East River bridge crossings gratis.

But while many are praising the effort to create a dedicated funding stream for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to bring the ailing subways into the 21st century, some Queens elected officials stand by their opposition to the EZPass charge of $11.52 for cars entering Manhattan during peak hours. A $25.34 fee would be placed on trucks to encourage overnight deliveries to businesses.

“Tolls must be more fair,” Cuomo said as the plan was unveiled last Friday. “Trips to and from New Jersey can be less expensive than trips from New York City’s outer boroughs. Tolls vary widely, and they must be rationalized so costs are fair to all.

“But, as a born and raised Queens boy, I have outer-borough blood in my veins, and it is my priority that we keep costs down for hardworking New Yorkers, and encourage use of mass transit. We must also find a way to reduce the costs for outer-borough bridges in any plan ultimately passed.”

Other attempts for similar plans have not been so successful. In 2008, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for a congestion-pricing plan, but it proved to be an unpopular notion and was killed at the state level.

After the system-wide transit meltdown of 2017, though, state government is intent on creating a dedicated revenue stream for the MTA, historically funded through the state budget every year.

Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Fresh Meadows), Councilman Barry Grodenchik (D-Oakland Gardens) and state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) protested the Fix NYC proposal on the Sunday following the release of the report, contending that outer-borough residents would be disadvantaged by the premium.

“Congestion pricing would be disastrous for Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island residents,” Weprin said. “The tolls would inadvertently place a tax [on] middle-class communities and small businesses in these areas and raise the cost of goods and services from these areas while also limiting the competitive ability of local businesses.

“On top of that, private drivers who rely on the free bridges would have to pay each and every time they travel into the city, in addition to the vehicle registration fees, fuel taxes and other garage fees charged to New York City drivers. New York cannot afford to break the backs and empty the wallets of its outer-borough locals to ‘Fix NYC.’”

After Cuomo’s budget address, Weprin praised the governor’s explicit intention to keep East River bridges, such as the Queensborough Bridge, toll-free. The Fix NYC proposal did not specify whether these crossings will continue to be exempt, but it defined the Commercial Business District, which will be the target of congestion pricing, as all of Manhattan below 60th Street.

Riders Alliance campaign manager Rebecca Bailin accused Weprin and those opposed to the proposal of “grandstanding” and defending people with enough money to own a car over the average city commuter.

“David Weprin is standing up for the few people who are rich enough to drive and park in Manhattan, and he is ignoring the needs of the vast number of working and middle-class New Yorkers who rely on the subway and buses,” Bailin said. “The congestion-pricing plan outlined by the Fix NYC panel is a progressive way to fund urgent repairs to the transit system so that working people can get to their jobs, pick up their kids and keep their medical appointments.

“Today, we’re demanding that Assembly Member Weprin stop grandstanding at the expense of struggling New Yorkers and be part of the solution instead. Our elected officials represent millions of transit riders, and they’d better start acting like they care about our needs.”

Only about 4 percent of drivers are expected to have to pay this fee, according to the report. But Grodenchik argued on Twitter that when you take into account a population in the millions, the numbers have a wider impact than expected.

“I will fervently oppose any congestion pricing plan,” Grodenchik said. “For too long our government has chosen to underfund our mass transit system. Now, to make up for its lack of investment, the State of New York is proposing a regressive tax that will fall squarely on the shoulders of hardworking New Yorkers. If this wrong-headed plan is implemented and ‘successful,’ traffic speed in the core area of Manhattan will still be less than 6 mph, which is a bill of goods I am not interested in buying.”

The Fix NYC proposal supported the governor’s recommendation during the previous week’s budget address to dedicate funds levied from the Payroll Mobility Tax, an annual $1.6 billion, to the MTA for its use updating infrastructure developed around the turn of the 20th century.

“Our transit system is at the breaking point,” said Toby Sheppard Bloch, a Riders Alliance member from Glendale. “Last week a ride that should have taken 20 minutes stretched over two hours. New Yorkers and the economy are suffering lost wages and lower productivity because elected officials have failed to commit sufficient resources to our transportation system. The time has long past to take action, and failure to establish a robust and ongoing funding stream to invest in mass transit will have crushing effects on our city.”

Reach reporter Mark Hallum by email at mhallum@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4564.

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

With the government shutdown having come to an end on Monday for at least three weeks, Congress has until Feb. 8 to decide the fate of about 689,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival recipients, undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children and remain temporarily protected from deportation. The Trump administration has said that the protection from DACA will expire on March 5.

If New York loses its approximately 152,000 DACA recipients, it will be at an exorbitant cost to the city, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, contributed $4.7 billion to the city’s gross domestic product last year and earned $2 billion, according to the mayor’s office.

There are 55,000 Dreamers in Queens, 46,000 in Brooklyn, 29,000 in the Bronx 18,000 in Manhattan and 4,000 in Staten Island, according to the mayor’s office. About 15 percent of Dreamers are professionals and 33 percent have occupations as service workers, according to Matt Dhaiti, a spokesman for the Mayor’s Office of Immigration Affairs.

They work in varying industries like education and health services (10 percent), construction, manufacturing and wholesale trade (20 percent) and hotel and food services (24 percent), Dhaiti said.

Dreamers have a 69 percent participation rate in the labor force, which is higher than the general population’s 65 percent in the five boroughs, MOIA said.

More than 20,000 Dreamers are homeowners or contribute to their families’ mortgage, and nearly one-third are attending college, have graduated or attended some college, according to MOIA.

The DREAM Act, a longstanding bill from which the Dreamers name is taken, would grant lawful status to immigrants brought here as children without documentation. If Congress were to pass it, 150,000 residents in the city would benefit from it, including the 110,000 people who would gain a path to citizenship. An additional 39,000 could be granted status if they meet an education requirement, according to MOIA.

More than 16,000 elementary school students and middle-schoolers are among the 150,000 who would gain immediate status if the bill went through by Feb. 8.

Democrats, who are in the minority in Congress and are fighting for the bill, have an uphill battle. Until Monday, Republicans in Congress held funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program hostage in order to get their way in receiving funding for a border wall, canceling visa lotteries, and a host of other measures that continue to grow without action on DACA, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

CHIP, a mostly federally funded program, provides 9 million children from low- to moderate-income families with low-cost health insurance.

If Republicans continued to hold CHIP hostage to get Democrats to concede on DACA, children in New York and 26 other states would have lost out on the program by March 2018, around the time DACA is set to expire.

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4573.

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By Tammy Scileppi

TimesLedger Newspapers

“I’m lucky to have worked in theater all over the world, but there’s something magical about Broadway. The audiences are smart, they’re educated. They go in ready and they’re up for it, they’re up for the party.” — Hugh Jackman

There’s something extra-magical when Broadway comes to Queens, especially when local theatergoers have an opportunity to watch a unique show that features a stellar cast of wonderfully talented actors performing at Queens Theatre — actors who are real-life Broadway couples.

With musical direction by Eugene Gwozdz, “Broadway Valentine” promises an evening or afternoon filled with an entertaining mix of lively music and singing across the spectrum of Broadway, pop, the American songbook and country, punctuated with personal stories from the cast and a question-and-answer session with the audience. Performances are at 8 p.m. Feb. 17 and 3 p.m. Feb. 18 at the theater, 14 United Nations Avenue South in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,

“It’ll be a great date night for theater lovers,” said executive director Taryn Sacramone. “Many of Queens Theatre’s audience members are big fans of Broadway and musical theater. Presenting this show is my way of sending a love letter to them.”

The three performing couples are Tony nominee Erin Dilly (“A Christmas Story,” “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”) and Stephen Buntrock (“Evita,” “A Little Night Music,” “Grease”); Kyle Dean Massey (“Nashville,” “Pippin,” “Next to Normal,” “Wicked”) and Taylor Frey (“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Finian’s Rainbow”); and Alysha Umphress (“On the Town,” “Bring It On,” “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”) and Cody Williams (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “On the Town,” “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella”).

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, chances are you’ll be feeling the love in spades, because these three couples love what they do and love making their audiences happy.

“I think that we feel a connectedness with each other when we experience live performances together – seeing and feeling that happen is very exciting to me,” said Sacramone, who decided to feature married couples — some married longer than others — because she thought there would be “something particularly fun about knowing that the couples who you are watching onstage are real-life couples, with their own love stories.”

“It certainly guarantees that the cast will have chemistry,” she said.

Since coming aboard in August 2013, Sacramone said, she wanted to continue to support and offer some of the programming that Queens Theatre audiences had appreciated for more than two decades: world-class dance companies, theater that was both presented and produced in-house, performances highlighting and celebrating cultural diversity, and the development of plays by emerging writers from diverse backgrounds.

In addition, she wanted to introduce new shows and performers that exemplified the values behind those programming decisions — what is exciting now, in 2018.

She also wanted to make use of all three spaces at Queens Theatre, inviting Titan Theatre Company, a young company that produces classical plays, to make its home in the Studio Theater, for example, and bringing the play-reading series New American Voices to the intimate cabaret space.

“What I aim to do is to provide shared experiences for a diverse audience,” Sacramone said. “I love seeing people from all over this exceptionally diverse borough in particular, in the theater together, being moved by an extraordinary dance performance or a thought-provoking play.”

Sacramone lives with her husband (a Queens native and restaurateur) and two children in Whitestone. “Both of us love this borough,” she said.

A local resident who once lived just across from Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Stephen DeAngelis said he’s “thrilled” to be producing (and hosting) his first concert exclusively for Queens Theatre. “The most fulfilling part of producing a concert like ‘Broadway Valentine,’ ” he said, “is being able to create something truly unique for the audience, utilizing the full range of the cast’s talents and connecting with the audience.

“These combinations of performers have never worked together previously, so I anticipate multiple ‘lightning in a bottle moments’ coupled with the energy of an opening night.”

Mark your calendars. DeAngelis will be returning to the theater with an all-new concert, “Broadway Kids,” set for March 24 and March 25.

Ideal for audience members of all ages, this original musical revue will feature young actors who were child performers in Broadway shows. Audiences are sure to enjoy talkbacks with the cast after each performance.

The talented producer has also served as casting director for the theater’s productions of “The Miracle Worker,” “In the Car with Blossom and Len” and “Jimmy and Carolyn.”

In addition, he has produced more than 250 Broadway concerts at venues in New York and across the United States. featuring a multitude of Broadway stars, including many Tony Award and Drama Desk Award winners and nominees, stars from hit television series and films whose roots are on stage, and Broadway’s fastest-rising young performers.

“We are fortunate to be working with Stephen DeAngelis, who has produced many musical revues in the past, and always works with top talent,” Sacramone said.

Over the years, he has cast more than 3,600 network television and radio commercials for Manhattan’s leading advertising agencies, for clients including Olive Garden, Cover Girl and Advil. DeAngelis has also cast the six-time Emmy-Award-nominated Playhouse Disney series “Johnny and the Sprites,” starring Tony Award nominee John Tartaglia, which was seen on the Disney Channel.

His work has been seen in New York and regionally in 300-plus theatrical productions. Coming productions include the New York premiere of the new musical “Unexpected Joy,” by two-time Tony Award nominee Bill Russell and Janet Hood, and the Off-Broadway production of “Texas in Paris.”

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By Zach Gewelb

TimesLedger Newspapers

The Queens College men’s basketball team’s losing extended to three when the Knights fell to Daemen College 81-70 Sunday in an ECC match in Flushing.

The loss dropped Queens to 5-10 on the season (3-5 ECC), while Daemen improved to 13-6 (6-2 ECC). The visitors used a strong first half to build a double-digit lead and kept the Knights at bay in the second half to secure the victory.

The Knights kept the game close early in the first, trailing by just one midway through the opening period. But the Wildcats’ offense went on a 25-14 run to build a 46-28 halftime advantage.

Red-shirt sophomore Jeff Redband played a key role in Daemen’s first-half rally, converting five of his nine three-point attempts to help pace the offense. Jay Sarkis contributed with nine assists in the game’s first 20 minutes as the Wildcats’ ball movement created open looks for the offense.

Daemen continued its onslaught in the second half, building its lead to as many as 22 points. But Queens never quit, using long-range shooting to cut its deficit to 13. The teams exchanged baskets before the Knights further cut into the lead late in the half to make the score 79-70.

But with just 30 seconds remaining, the Knights ran out of time to complete the comeback, as Daemen secured the 81-70 victory.

Senior Tyrone Hall led the Knights with 21 points in just 28 minutes. He drained four three-pointers and went a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line in addition to recording eight rebounds and five assists.

Senior Simon Green was the only other Knight to score in double figures, recording 16 points on 4-of-10 shooting.

Darius Garvin, Andrew Sischo and Redband each had 17 points to lead the Wildcats. Sischo added 12 rebounds, Garvin pulled down six and Redband had seven.

The loss comes after Queens previously fell to Roberts Wesleyan, 72-60, last Friday. The losing streak started with a 99-81 loss to Bridgeport on Jan. 13.

Reach reporter Zach Gewelb by e-mail at zgewelb@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4539.

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Edgar Ray Killen, the klansman responsible for the assassination of three civil rights workers, including Andrew Goodman, a Queens College alum, during the 1964 Freedom Summer, died in prison Jan. 11, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Killen, 92, orchestrated and participated in the murders of civil rights workers Goodman, 20, Michael Schwerner, 24 and James Chaney, 21 on June 21, 1964, according to the FBI.

The Congress of Racial Equality, an organization that fights for civil rights using nonviolence, said Goodman and Schwerner were from New York and joined their organization in going to Mississippi, were they met fellow member Chaney, and the three worked together to help black people register to vote.

CORE was not alone in its effort, and other civil rights groups like the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and the Council of Federated Organizations, participated in Freedom Summer, which was a 1964 project specifically meant to help black voters in Mississippi, according to the organization.

Goodman and Schwerner arrived in Mississippi on June 16, 1964, and after joining Chaney, an African-American, to start their civil rights work, they quickly became targets of Killen, a Baptist preacher, and several other members of the Ku Klux Klan, according to history.com.

On June 21, 1964, the three men were arrested on a traffic charge, released in the middle of the night and ambushed, at which point they were reported missing when their car was found burned, according to police.

Six weeks later, an FBI informant later revealed the three civil rights workers were buried in an earthen dam 14 feet below a local farm, and a coroner determined that all three had been shot, and that Chaney had been chain-whipped as well.

Killen and 17 others were arrested for the murders, and an all-white jury convicted only seven of the men in a trial. The Baptist preacher, however, had a hung jury, because one juror refused to convict a pastor, according to prosecutors.

The men who were convicted were sentenced to seven years maximum, according to BBC.com. The case against Killen wouldn’t be reopened for four decades, and he faced a new trial in 2005. Killen was later convicted of three counts of manslaughter and was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

The FBI investigation of the murders was fictionalized in the Academy Award-winning 1988 film “Mississippi Burning.”

Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2014.

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4573.

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By Tammy Scileppi

TimesLedger Newspapers

Music is an amazing and powerful teaching tool. It can be used to empower students as music makers, while creating a joyful connection that always puts smiles on their faces.

But it takes an extraordinary person, someone who is patient and compassionate, to ignite a spark in kids and teens with autism spectrum disorder and other special challenges, through the power of music.

Adam Goldberg, a music teacher at PS 177Q in Fresh Meadows, had an aha! moment when he discovered a remarkable way to better connect with his students via a unique method that he developed — using the hidden magic of iPads — to help them play musical “instruments.”

Eureka! It turned out that an Apple iPad could have transformative powers when used creatively in special education.

“When the iPad first came out, I could see immediately that they could be used to support my students’ music making,” said Goldberg, who started teaching with iPads in early 2011 but acknowledged that previously, he wasn’t into technology.

As a coverage teacher, he sees 120 to 150 special-needs students per semester, mostly from Queens. Each class has six to 12 students, and the age range is 8 to 21 years.

“My students are truly amongst the most wonderful humans on the planet. I want to provide authentic music-making opportunities to every student I serve,” Goldberg said.

“Music is a powerful means of self-expression, especially for my students, who may have difficulty expressing themselves in traditional ways,” he said. “The iPad and the growing list of peripheral devices that can be used in conjunction with it” — like the Skoog, a customizable musical instrument created for people with disabilities, and Roli Blocks, a new-age music-making device — “provide a means for me to universally design the music-making experience, so that every student has access to viable opportunities to express themselves musically within an ensemble setting.”

His talented students also play real musical instruments like keyboards, drums and percussion, and they sing, as well.

So why is it easier to teach on iPads?

“The iPad and the many highly modifiable music performance apps offer multiple entry points for students of all abilities,” Goldberg said. “Modifications can include the use of colors and lights, and the ability to select only those notes the student plays on the GUI” — the graphical user interface..

Music is a unique window into the world of autism, so kids, teens and young adults on the spectrum do better across the board when they’re musically engaged and playing instruments. There is evidence to suggest that many people with ASD can understand simple and complex musical emotions, despite limited socialization and communication skills.

Goldberg pointed out that in many ways, music serves as a foundation for communication and camaraderie among him and his students. “The accessibility of the iPad gives us a musical platform with which to communicate,” he noted.

And his students are quite proud of their accomplishments, while their parents are awed by how far they’ve come and are singing the praises of their favorite music teacher.

“It is one of my greatest joys to know that the parents can come to see their children perform together with their peers in schoolwide shows,” Goldberg said. “This is something that many parents don’t think their children could ever do. And yet some come forward to shine like stars. It can be very emotionally rewarding for them to see their children as featured performers on stage.”

This diverse group of musical stars has been performing for school shows and functions several times a year, and their popularity has grown. A while back, a Technology Band was formed, and students rocked out holiday tunes, as well as Bob Marley’s “One Love,” on their tablets.

They’ve been featured at education conferences, such as the Art for All Abilities Consortium’s annual conference at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan and the UFT spring conference at the New York Hilton.

They’ve wowed audiences at two Manhattan Apple Stores, and even put on a concert in Washington, D.C. to open the U.S. Department of Education’s International Education Week in 2014.

“As a group, they have also very successfully ventured into composition,” Goldberg said. Their song “Take a Stand” will be performed at Carnegie Hall in March and at the school’s Black History Month show at the end of February.

Since music is a universal language, it’s easy to understand how it can break through any perceived boundaries and how it has brought out the best in Goldberg’s students.

He says it relaxes them and gets them prepared to focus and learn. “I can focus on the optimal qualities of music making, such as listening to each other, and expressing themselves within the structure of the musical context. Along with the way, iPad apps are modified for each student’s ability. The structure of the music — beat, rhythm, harmony and melody — provides both the guidelines and impetus for student progress, both as music makers and as young people who are developing sharper motor and cognitive skills, which help the student’s overall learning abilities.”

Having taught at PS 177Q for 25 years, Goldberg said, he finds that teaching music was far more challenging before he discovered iPads, which he was able to get thanks to a grant through his district.

“Music still served as a powerful way for me to reach students, and I did whatever modifications I could of more traditional instruments,” he noted.

While he says there are other iPad ensembles out there, and teachers using technology in their music classrooms, as a whole, he thinks music in schools is not nearly inclusive enough.

Goldberg said he gets many questions from people across the country, and around the world, on how to incorporate technology in their ensembles, but those questions represent a small minority. “Unfortunately, these powerful new technologies, and the many ways they can be used to include everyone in viable, expressive and successful music making, is slow to catch on at this point.”

When asked why he enjoys his work despite the challenges, PS 177Q’s numero uno music teacher replied: “In a sense, it’s the challenges that make my work so rewarding. My students are very good-hearted young people. They often don’t realize what they are capable of. When I witness their expressions of joy when they discover their ability to play music, it brings me great joy.

“And possibly the most valuable outcome of music making is the social skills that are developed whenever a group of students learns to play music together. They go through the process of learning together, and they all realize the value of their contribution, and how it amounts to something even more powerful than themselves when done together with their peers.”

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By Mark Hallum

TimesLedger Newspapers

Emergency medical technicians Zache Cox and Frantzi Honore were given special honors Saturday for saving the lives of four people in Queens who were suffering from prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide, also known as the silent killer.

During the ceremony, at FDNY’s EMS Station 54 in Springfield Gardens, the likes of state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman (D-Springfield Gardens) and Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) recognized the two EMTs with official proclamations.

According to Cox, the episode occurred just days after Thanksgiving when a family, who had been cooking in their single-family home, mistook their carbon monoxide detector for a smoke detector and shut it off after it began beeping.

As time went by, members of the family began feeling sick, and when one resident took seriously ill, they dialed 911.

“We got on scene and we saw this lady outside sitting on the porch — she was saying she felt very sick,” Cox said, explaining that the woman wanted to go to the hospital but had her son and two grandsons inside the home as well. “My partner went upstairs, and his CO meter started going off. … We saw one patient, a little boy, laying on the floor, and the other little boy laying on the bed, and then the son was in the other room. From there, we got everyone out of the house and opened up the windows.”

The four victims were moved to a facility in Manhattan, where they would remain under treatment in a hyperbaric chamber until they recovered.

“The grandmother thought the kids were just sick,” Honore said, explaining that there needs to be better education about the importance of maintaining working detectors, which should be checked every six months. “The meter was going off at first, and they shut it off. They had another one downstairs and they shut it off too. … We said, if there is something going off, it means something is going on. Don’t shut it off.”

With the lack of an adequate amount of carbon monoxide detectors in the city, emergency responders now carry them as part of their everyday gear.

“The tricky thing about carbon monoxide is that you can’t see it, you can’t smell it, it’s odorless. The only way to know is to have a meter,” Station 54 Capt. Steven Warren said.

Comrie gave the two EMTs the New York State Liberty Medal, which requires Senate approval.

Hyndman said that Station 54 plays a prominent role in the community by hosting different events and that her office would do its part to raise awareness to the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“Young people watch comic books and Marvel hero cartoons,” Richards said, “and in the moments you think of heroes, you think of Batman, you think of Superman, but you never think of people who day in and day out are making sure our communities are safe.”

Richards issued a proclamation for each EMT and a third for the station.

Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhallum@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4564.

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Forest Hills), the chairman of the Assembly’s Correction Committee, led the fight last Friday to call for an end to the limiting inmate package program, which restricts prisoners from getting fresh foods, books and commissaries from loved ones.

In the afternoon, Gov. Cuomo tweeted that he was working to lift those restrictions on packages.

“I am directing the Dept. of Corrections to rescind its flawed pilot program that restricted shipment of books & care packages to inmates,” Cuomo said. “Concerns from families need to be addressed, while we redouble efforts to fight prison contraband.”

Weprin joined with the chairs of the Assembly of Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, the Assembly Codes Committee and the Assembly Health Committee and authored a letter to the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to reinstate commissary at all 54 prison facilities across New York.

“While drugs and other contraband may be coming in through the package room, the vast number of packages do not contain contraband,” Weprin said in the letter. “Inmate families should be able to send packages to their loved ones without undue restrictions.”

Family members of inmates who were Jewish or Muslim had concerns about the dietary restrictions that the Dec. 4, 2017, directive, which allowed six vendors mostly a limited amount of food to prisoners, according to the assemblyman.

Weprin also cited the unreasonable cost of items from vendors and the types of restrictions on books as also problematic. For instance, the Bible would cost prisoners $7, but the Quran would cost others $30. Prisoners were allowed to choose from only 98 books, 24 of them coloring books.

“Limiting the number of vendors to two, or even a handful of companies, creates an unreasonable burden on prisoners and their families,” Weprin said.

The December commissary directive also discontinued the purchasing of products from bargain stores.

“Disallowing packages from vendors like Target, Barnes and Noble, Walmart and other national companies is unreasonable,” Weprin said. “Asking inmates and their families to pay premium prices for a narrow range of food, books and other items from a few private vendors is hard on the poor.”

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4573.

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Source: Times Ledger