QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, August 15, 2013 Page 6
SQ page 6
10 yrs. for fatal hit-and-run A Brooklyn man who struck and killed a special education student outside Joh n Adams High School in 2005 and then f led the country for seven years has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Bartolo Paula, 56, of Brooklyn hit 15-year-old Jeffrey Javier with his vehicle on Oct. 26, 2005, while making a left turn onto Rockaway Boulevard from 101st Street. According to the charges, Paula was stopped at a red light and made the left when the light turned green, striking Javier in the crosswalk. After hitting Javier, Paula kept d r ivi ng. A w it ness followed the defendant for several blocks, took down his license plate number and turned it over to police, who later interviewed Paula. After agreeing to sur render to police the next day, Paula instead fled to the Dominican Republic and ultimately to Spain, where he was found and extradited from in December. He pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on June 19. Javier, who suffered a fractured skull and other injuries, later died at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Q
Boardwalk to be rebuilt this winter City says plans will be out in Sept. by Domenick Rafter Editor
Plans for the reconstruction of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, destroyed in Hurricane Sandy, will be out in September, Parks Commissioner Veronica White said Monday, “We’ve hosted several meetings out in the communities in the various parts of the Rockaways to discuss what we need going forward, and what the community has made clear to us and what the mayor has made clear to me is that we rebuild the boardwalk,” White said at a press conference at Riis Landing to announce CUNY’s planned institute at Jamaica Bay. “In addition we will build some kind of protection for the communities while we do that. We will be coming back to the community with the design in September, discussing that in the fall and hoping for construction to start on the new boardwalk by the end of the year.” Much of the boardwalk west of Beach 85th Street was washed away in Sandy and small “boardwalk islands” around
concession stands were rebuilt in time for this summer. In the meantime, the Army Corps of Engineers is moving for ward with rebuilding much of the beach that was washed away in the storm, including protective dunes. “We just started phase one, which is to repair the existing project out in the Rockaways, so the sand being pumped now is part of that project,” Col. Paul Owen, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York District, said at Monday’s press conference. Residents in the Rockaways have held a number of rallies demanding the boardwalk reconstruction be prioritized along with the construction of new dunes to protect the community from future storms. Some, including Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway Park), said they would like to see jetties built along the beach west of Arverne as well. The jetties have been credited with lessening the impact of Sandy’s storm surge on the eastern half of the Rockaway Peninsula. Q
Toxic scare at JFK Airport A chemical which sickened two Customs and Border Protection officers at the postal facility at JFK Airport on Sunday turned out to be nothing more dangerous than acetone nail-polish remover, according to law enforcement officials. The two officers fell ill and experienced nausea after opening a package containing an odd odor. A hazardous response team from the FBI responded to the airport “out of an abundance of caution,” said J. Peter Donald, a spokesman for the FBI in New York. “The package in question was determined to be beauty supplies and nothing further,” he said. T he subst a nce wa s or ig i n al ly feared to be a chemical called VX, which is a dangerous organophosphorus nerve agent, according to officials According to published reports, Port Authority officials said the package was par t of a shipment from China. The busy postal facility handles packages and envelopes from all over Q the world. — Stephen Geffon
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