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By Gina Martinez

TimesLedger Newspapers

A Middle Village man apparently froze to death in the backseat of his car during the recent frigid weekend.

According to police, 55-year-old Donald Swidzinski was found dead in the early hours of last Saturday in the backseat of his Jeep in the parking lot of a McDonald’s on Borden Avenue in Maspeth. Police said they believe Swidzinski was intoxicated when he crawled into the car and fell asleep. A bottle was found with him.

The cause of death is to be determined by the medical examiner, but police said Swidzinski appears to have died of hypothermia.

Temperatures that weekend were as low as 9 degrees.

Swidzinski’s wake at Our Lady of Hope Church in Middle Village was set for this past Thursday morning.

His obituary listed him as a beloved father of Devin and Christian, dear husband of Tina Marie, cherished son of Eleanora and Peter Swidinski, and loving brother of Lynn Russo, Peter, Renee Ventura and Roman, He is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

A video keepsake on his online obituary page showed Swidzinski with his young children and family on vacation.

Mourners expressed their condolences on the page.

“I’m so sorry for your unimaginable loss,” a friend posted. “Keeping you and your entire family in our prayers. Sending our deepest and most sincere condolences.”

Another friend posted: “My love and prayers to all. He will be greatly missed. God be with him and all of you.”

Swidzinski’s widow, according to reports, is the former owner of Piast European Market, a Polish deli in Greenpoint. On her Facebook page she expressed her grief in a post. She shared a picture of Swidzinski with her son and captioned it:

“Today is a very sad day,” she posted. “My partner in life, father of my son, has passed away! Very sad that he pass at such an early age come and have so much life out of him! We all love him! I love him so much, I don’t know how it will go living.”

Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmartinez@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4566.

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By Benjamin M. Haber

TimesLedger Newspapers

Good and responsible government does not exist in the absence of transparency and in particular when it involves land-use matters that have been notorious in favoring real estate interests and those with political connections.

A case in point is Willets Point. Notwithstanding that the city collected sewer rent when there were no sewers and collected real estate and other taxes and did not spend a nickel to repair the streets, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared the area a blight and sought to shut down hundreds of small businesses, depriving many workers and their dependents of a livelihood.

Notwithstanding a promise by Bloomberg that the community would have some say in the selection of a developer, he reneged and gave the job to the Mets’ Wilpons, Sterling Equities and Related Companies, as the Queens Development Group. The latter really had no interest at all in the 2008 Willets Point plan and really wanted a gambling casino.

When that failed, the plan remained dormant for many years until QDG came up with a new plan. It claimed it could not afford to construct the 2008 plan and that in order to do so, it needed permission to construct a 1.4-million-square-foot mega-mall on the Citi Field parking lot, generating enough money to construct the 2008 Willets Point plan.

Ignoring the speculation about whether a mall would in fact make money, and ignoring that the Citi Field parking lot was on Flushing Meadows Corona Park land, a myopic Bloomberg and City Council not only went along with the QDG plan but agreed that the Willets Point property, acquired by the city for hundreds of millions of dollars, would be sold to QDG for ONE DOLLAR. They also agreed to give subsidies of more than $100 million and a tax abatement of more than $40 million.

To add insult to injury, they agreed to make the mega-mall a priority; the 2008 plan was postponed until 2025, and the developers could walk away from constructing affordable housing by forfeiting $35 million, a pittance for these billionaires. This agreement was such a raid on the city treasury that it made the infamous Boss Tweed look like a mischievous youngster.

Litigation ensued, and the mega-mall plan was rejected by the New York State Court of Appeals. The matter then remained dormant until the current rumor that Mayor Bill de Blasio is considering handing over to QDG 23 acres of Willets Point property for ONE DOLLAR (“Willets Pointers blast Blaz,” Bayside Times, Jan. 5-11). If de Blasio does that, he then falls into the same snakepit as those legislators who made the outrageous deal to begin with.

The public should know that at no time did Bloomberg or the City Council question whether there was any truth to the QDG’s claim it could not afford to construct the 2008 plan or that it needed to pay only ONE DOLLAR for property, and seek to examine QDG’s books. Had they done so, they would have found that QDG had a portfolio of at least $20 billion consisting of many apartments, was in fact one of New York City’s largest landlords and owned thousands of rental units throughout the country. QDG does not qualify for welfare. Unless de Blasio wants to be known as a bedmate with real estate moguls and the little people be damned, he should reject the plan, get rid of QDG, give the original 2008 plan to another developer and earn the respect of the people.

Benjamin M. Haber

Flushing

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is urging President Donald Trump to help New York City eliminate drug trafficking by signing a bill that would bring high-tech machines able to detect the powerful drug fentanyl to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The bill, known as the Interdict Act, would allow portable chemical detection technology to JFK immediately to help stop the opioid scourge that has been gripping the country, according to the senator.

“This new law will make sure our ports of entry, field labs and international mail facilities have access to more handheld chemical scanners to test suspicious substances and provide vital real-time data on its source,” Schumer said. “That means narcotics, like illicit fentanyl, can be quickly detected, identified and seized on the spot.”

Schumer’s plea comes months after the Drug Enforcement Administration made the largest fentanyl busts across the country in Queens on Aug. 1 and the Bronx on Sept. 5, according to their DEA agents.

A record 270 pounds of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine valued at $30 million was discovered at a bust, according to the DEA.

“The NYPD has been successful in drug interdiction to date, but this seizure goes down in history as a milestone in the ongoing fight against fentanyl,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said.

DEA agents and NYPD officers worked together to recover a total of over 140 pounds of pure fentanyl, over 48.5 pounds of fentanyl mixed with other drugs, over 11 pounds of heroin, and over 13.2 pounds of cocaine from a Queens couple in a residential building at 85-15 120th St. in Kew Gardens.

The NYPD said that the 140 pounds of pure fentanyl, which was tested in a lab, has the potential to kill 32 million people alone.

The Center of Disease Control says that as little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl, or a little more than .00007 of an ounce, can be lethal. Visually speaking, it looks like a few grains of sand.

“As a major port of entry, JFK International Airport should be amongst the first locations to receive new high-tech drug scanners once this bill is signed into law,” Schumer said.

In his letter to the president, Schumer explained that fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin and is wreaking havoc across New York. According to stats the senator cited from the city’s Health Department, there were 233 fentanyl deaths in Long Island and 493 overall opioid-related deaths in New York in 2016.

The senator’s office states that the drugs are mostly made in China, then shipped via mail or commercial flights through JFK Airport, or smuggled in from Mexico.

Schumer also wants to protect transit agents from fentanyl as well as from Carfentanil, another form of fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger and used to tranquilize elephants.

The new high-tech tool “means our diligent screening staff is more safe because they will not have to risk their own safety to expose dangerous substances,” the senator said.

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

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By Mark Hallum

TimesLedger Newspapers

The city Parks Department extended MulchFest by another week to give New Yorkers “mulch more time” to dispose of Christmas trees.

The annual program kicked off Dec. 31 and was originally scheduled to run through Jan. 7, but because of record low temperatures last weekend, it will be extended through Sunday.

Residents can dispose of trees by dropping them off at 13 designated sites in Queens, although on-site chipping will no longer take place. The Sanitation Department will also conduct curbside pickup to recycle trees.

Drop-off locations in Queens are Astoria Park, Brookville Park, Captain Mario Fajardo Park, Cunningham Park, Forest Park, Hunter’s Point South Park, Juniper Valley Park, Queensbridge Park, Rockaway Beach at Beach 94th Street and Shore Front Parkway, Rockaway Beach at the parking lot at Beach 11th Street, Roy Wilkins Park, Travers Park and Windmuller Park.

The Parks Department advised residents to remove all lights and ornaments before disposing of trees.

Now in its 22nd year, MulchFest provides residents with a fun and eco-friendly way to shred their Christmas trees and recycle the mulch that comes of it. The city makes mulch out of 25,000 to 30,000 trees per year, and it is used in gardens around the city.

The Sanitation Department will continue with curbside pickup until Saturday, weather permitting.

MulchFest is done in partnership between GreenNYC, a city organization that pushes the Zero Waste initiative, and Whole Foods and Cabot.

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

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

The Queens LGBT community is mourning the loss of a beloved figure. Mary Audrey Gallagher, the mother of City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and a founding member of PFLAG/Queens, died last Thursday after suffering a heart attack. She was 85.

“My beautiful mother was my Rose Kennedy,” Dromm said. “My mother knocked on over 1,500 doors to help get me elected, wrote a beautiful letter to seniors in the district and was constantly seen campaigning with me. Everywhere I went, people always asked me about my mother. I truly believe she was the main reason I won.”

Gallagher grew up in the Blissville section of Long Island City, which was home to many of New York City’s Irish immigrant population. Her family moved to Rego Park, and Gallagher attended St. Margaret’s Elementary School in Middle Village and went to high school at the Mary Louis Academy in Jamaica. After graduating from St. John’s University, she married Warren Dromm and gave birth to her first of five children, Daniel, who grew up to be openly gay.

In 1993, Gallagher decided to help her son and PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford organize a Queens chapter of PFLAG, a support, education and advocacy group for parents, families and friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

“Audrey was so incredibly supportive of her son Danny, and I will always remember her fondly,” PFLAG/Queens President Anne Quashen said. “She and Danny were very close. She was one of his main supporters since he came out to her at age 17. Audrey had a wonderful way of speaking with parents and children alike. They felt that they could really open up to her thanks to her warmth and kindness. Audrey was one of a kind, and she will be sorely missed.”

Gallagher served as the PFLAG/Queens hospitality chair for years and was seen at most major LGBT events in the borough. She offered support not only to her gay son but to all LGBT people who entered her life.

“From the get-go, Audrey was a very outspoken parent who wanted to show the world the unconditional love she had for her gay son,” PFLAG/Queens Outreach and Media Director Larry Nelson said, adding, “The chapter will miss the love and devotion that she shared with others over the years.”

Astoria resident Brendan Fay, co-founder of the inclusive St. Pat’s for All Parade and member of the Lavender and Green Alliance, said the borough’s LGBT community became Gallagher’s extended family.

“She had a hug and a word of encouragement for everyone, but especially for those who needed it most: parents and LGBT children struggling in a world of prejudice,” Fay said. “She warmed a room with her stories, humor and a song. When the history of the LGBT movement in Queens is told, there will be the story of a community activist and gay man Danny Dromm and of an Irish-American mother, Mary Audrey Gallagher, who embraced us and our cause for equality as her own.”

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

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

As Winter Storm Grayson bore down on the city last week, residents of the Woodside Houses were freezing in their own homes as they were left without heat or hot water in the New York City Housing Authority complex at 50-51 Broadway. Tenants in more than 30 NYCHA developments reported heat problems that same day, but Mayor Bill de Blasio went to the Astoria Houses, where 1,357 apartments were affected, with City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and state Assemblyman Brian Barnwell (D-Maspeth), and service was restored within four hours, according to NYCHA.

“We had an outage yesterday due to low gas pressure at Woodside Houses,” NYCHA Spokeswoman Jasmine Blake said Friday. “Our staff was able to work with National Grid to restore service in the afternoon and confirm heat throughout the development. We are working 24/7 to provide all residents the safe, warm homes they deserve.”

Van Bramer said tenants at the Woodside Houses deserve to have their heat work when it is supposed to.

“While the visit with the mayor produced quick results for the residents of the Woodside Houses, new boilers must be a part of the capital budget for NYCHA in the near future,” Van Bramer said. “While federal aid to NYCHA lags behind where it needs to be, there is never an excuse for residents to freeze in their own apartments.”

De Blasio toured the boiler room at the Woodside Houses and spoke about his visit during his weekly appearance on WNYC.

“Here’s the bottom line. I went out to Woodside Houses in Queens and actually met with the general manager for all of NYCHA, Michael Kelly, and the guy who’s in charge of all heating for NYCHA. And it’s fascinating to see the challenges they face every day,” de Blasio said. “They’ve got a boiler in one NYCHA development that goes back to 1954. Many others are 30, 40 years, or more older. Look, the blunt truth is because for decades NYCHA did not get the investment it needed, a lot of these boilers are in really tough shape ,but the folks who work at NYCHA do a great job every day figuring out how to keep them going.”

City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced that his office will launch a new audit of NYCHA’s heating systems after an initial review found that it has a reported rate of defective boilers that is five times the citywide average.

“Across the city, tenants are suffering without heat and hot water. That’s not an inconvenience — it’s a crisis,” Stringer said. “NYCHA tenants are being left in the cold, in their own homes, by their own government. It’s unacceptable. We cannot not be a city in which those in luxury towers are living in comfort, while those across the street in NYCHA complexes are deprived of heat and hot water.”

The new audit will be Stringer’s ninth probe of NYCHA, more than any other comptroller in at least the last 27 years. It comes after an audit of NYCHA in 2015 that showed problems with maintenance of boilers and heating systems.

“Unfortunately, heating breakdowns happen year after year — and the bureaucracy continues to play whack-a-mole with short-term fixes instead of permanent solutions,” Stringer said. “We need to address this maintenance mess now, because our seniors, children, and families are struggling. That’s why we’re going to be looking under the hood at NYCHA. This is about safety — and equity.”

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

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

The NYPD discovered a cache of weapons as they executed a search warrant in Jamaica early Wednesday morning.

Vladimir Ulysse, 39, was arrested and arraigned Thursday morning on multiple drug possession and weapons charges after officers from the NYPD’s Queens South Narcotics and Police Service Area 9 raided his home at 179-26 143rd Road near Farmers Boulevard and the Belt Parkway around 5:30 a.m., police said.

Investigators hauled away 14 pounds of marijuana valued at $30,000, 11 grams of crack cocaine, 33 grams of Ecstasy and more than $6,000 in cash, and a scale.

Police also recovered an arsenal that included a .357-caliber revolver and seven semi-automatic pistols, according to the NYPD. Two of the weapons had serial numbers scratched off, according to the Queens DA’s office.

Ulysse is being held on $100,000 cash or bond and his next court date is Jan. 30.

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

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By Rory I. Lancman

TimesLedger Newspapers

In November 2016, Mayor de Blasio announced that the city was planning to create an online bail payment system to make it easier for individuals and family members to post bail. These are individuals who a Court already deemed could be set free while awaiting trial, if they can come up with a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. The administration claimed that the system would be up and running by spring 2017.

This announcement was a big deal. The process of paying bail in New York State today is a Kafkaesque nightmare. It can take many hours, including long waits and travel times, for friends and family members to pay bail.

Our dreadful and inefficient process for paying bail has serious consequences. Every year in New York City, thousands of people, who have not been convicted of any crime, are stuck in jail solely because the process to pay bail is so cumbersome. For defendants, that means time away from their families, their job, and their community. For taxpayers, unnecessary incarceration is a tremendous waste of public funds. For society, keeping people behind bars when they do not have to be is one of the Scrooges of our justice system.

The creation of an online bail payment system would not fix every problem with bail in New York, but it would finally bring that process into the 21st century and help mitigate unnecessary and expensive incarceration. This is one area where the city has the power on its own to make important changes and take a critical step toward reducing the population at Rikers Island.

Yet for all the promise that an online bail payment system brings, the city has completely failed to make this innovation a reality.

The city’s original deadline of “spring 2017” came and went with no developments. In October 2017, the city said the online bail system would be up and running by the end of 2017. However, by December 2017, the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice told me at a Committee hearing that the system would not be functional until April 2018.

Even if the city somehow meets its latest self-imposed deadline, the online bail payment system will not be available until a full year after originally promised. That is unacceptable.

Creating an online bail payment system is not rocket science. We can buy goods online. We can pay bills and parking tickets online. There is no reason why New Yorkers should not be able to pay bail online for their friends or loved ones too.

Guest Editorial written by Councilman Rory I. Lancman.

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By Mark Hallum

TimesLedger Newspapers

Major overhauls to the general layout of Penn Station to curb terrorist threats are on the horizon, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced during his State of the State address last Wednesday, saying he may use eminent domain to make it happen.

Cuomo ordered state agencies to examine the option to redevelop the 40-year-old Penn Station and said he would consider using the power of eminent domain to expedite upgrades. In the meantime, the Moynihan Train Hall, where construction is underway, should serve to increase capacity as an annex to Penn as well as acting as a safer transfer point for New Yorkers, Cuomo said.

“On top of the volume, the architecture and configuration of Penn is substandard,” Cuomo said. “I call it the seven levels of catacombs. They don’t like when I say that, but it’s true.

“I have directed ESD, the MTA and the Port Authority to work on a redevelopment plan with the neighboring private building owners so that we can restructure and rebuild Penn Station. They are cooperative and understand our needs and support our goal. We are now constructing a new Penn Station, Moynihan Train Hall, right across the street. As that becomes operational, that will give us a flexibility to move operations from the old Penn to the new Farley.”

The Farley Post Office building is currently being transformed into an annex to Penn Station, which will increase capacity and relieve congestion in the nation’s largest transit hub.

A combination of around 233,000 Long Island Rail Road riders per day traveled through Penn Station in 2016, with 5,920 taking the train to and from Hunters Point. For many in eastern Queens, the LIRR is the best and only option for getting to jobs in Manhattan.

“So we’re going to be coordinating with Amtrak, federal government, city officials to accelerate this comprehensive redevelopment project, which will improve the operation, the aesthetics and the security systems in Penn,” Cuomo said. “The threat of terrorism is real. I take it very seriously as one of my prime responsibilities as governor of this state. There is no time for politics, bureaucracy or delay. The state has the power of eminent domain for just such a purpose. We must make Penn better. We must make it safer. We must coordinate with all our partners, but we must do it now.”

Cuomo briefly touched on the issue of the subway crisis, which was compounded by reduced service in Penn Station during what the governor termed the summer of hell, but he did not offer any new information or solutions other than mentioning the need to fund short-term repairs and upgrades and the need to establish a dedicated funding stream for the MTA.

He said the Fix New York Panel would soon offer solutions for enacting congestion pricing, a proposed surcharge on car traffic using bridges and tunnels into Manhattan.

“Our 100-year-old system needs an overhaul,” Cuomo said. “We have 40-year-old subway cars and 80-year-old electric signals. Hurricane Sandy accelerated the decline, because saltwater and electric currents are a corrosive cocktail. The Fix New York Panel will shortly present a report that will have several options for the legislature to consider.”

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

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