Queens Deadline
$708M Fix For School PCB Problem By JESSICA ABLAMSKY Schools Chancellor Cathie Black announced a $708 million capital plan to remove a toxin from City schools that can interrupt fetal development and lower IQ, trumping a rally organized by elected officials urging the City Dept. of Education to take immediate action. The DOE’s 10-year plan will commence this year with Requests for Proposals to replace all PCB containing lighting ballasts at 772 City school buildings and conduct a complete energy audit in each site. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has been in discussion with City officials for months and had strongly recommended systematic action. In addition to significant operational savings, the capital plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 200,000 metric tons per year, the equivalent of removing 40,000 cars from the road. A decade-long timeline may not be good enough for some local politicians. A bill in the State Assembly with 42 cosponsors would force the DOE to upgrade the lighting units within five years. Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were
EDC Willets Pt. Plan Is Rife With Support
A vision for the future of Willets Point has widespread support, though the plan’s detrac tors are often considerably more vocal. Phase 1 businesses by the end of 2011, though actual relocation will not happen until half a year later. All tenants outside of the Phase 1 area have a three-year buffer to continue business as usual. Opponents have taken the EDC to task for past promises made by the City to keep eminent domain off the table until exit ramps off the Van Wyck Expressway were approved by the state’s Dept. of Transportation. The EDC maintains its new phased-in approach eliminates the necessity for the ramps’ approval, adding it anticipates their revised plan’s approval shortly. The first part of the redevelopment will include affordable housing, a hotel, infrastructure improvements, retail and two acres of open space. “That location is ripe for development,” said Seth Bornstein, president of the Queens Economic Development Corp, adding growth comes at a cost. “For the borough and city, change is difficult, but the city doesn’t grow if it doesn’t change,” he said. “Overall, this will bring more opportunity for more people.” The project’s opposition befuddles the Queens Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Vice President Jack Friedman, who sees nothing but benefits from the plan’s completion. “Whoever is opposed to this project, God bless them, but this area is not helping anyone,” he said. The plan’s convention center remains the lynchpin of the Chamber’s support, Friedman said, but the overall economic boon redevelopment will bring sustains the group’s position. “Right now, the current situation in Willets Point is not helping anybody,” he said. The EDC plans to release a Request for Proposals for Phase 1’s developer in April. Reach Deputy Reporter Joseph Orovic at jorovic@queenstribune.com, or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 127.
Meng (D-Flushing). Elected officials who contacted Mayor Mike Bloomberg in anticipation of the rally never received a response. “We’re in the middle of the press conference and then someone from the mayor’s press office comes passing out a press release, basically announcing capital funding,” she said. “PCB lights are exposing kids to health risks across the city every day. Their replacement can happen in two years with no cash outlet by the city at all. There is no reason for kids to be exposed to PCBs for an extra eight years.” Private contractors known as energy service companies are prepared to front the City money for the energy efficient lighting units, with repayment based on energy savings. Other financial solutions could include a lowinterest loan from the New York Power Authority, which is already slowly replacing lighting ballasts, said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), the bill’s primary sponsor. “The City was talking about wild figures like a billion dollars a few weeks ago,” said Miranda Massie, director of litigation for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “It is clear that they can get this taken care of with no cash outlay and much more quickly.” A major unanswered question is source of funding, said Councilman Mark Weprin (DOakland Gardens). “In these fiscal times, we want to know where the money is coming from,” he said. “I’m nervous about how this will be done, if it will be done in a way that the children will be safe. There are a lot of questions that have to be answered, but it’s a good first step.” In a statement, the EPA agreed. “We are reviewing the City’s proposed plan and timeline and we will respond soon with our recommendations to the City,” the statement read. Reach Reporter Jessica Ablamsky at jablamsky@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 124.
City Seeks To Discern JFK Air Cargo Future By DOMENICK RAFTER New York City Economic Development Corp. is looking to explore ways to improve the air cargo system at JFK Airport. The EDC issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking a consultant to conduct an indepth study of the air cargo industry, focusing on ways to increase and expand the industry at JFK, the top international cargo airport in the region. “The air cargo industry, which employs thousands of New Yorkers and generates billions of dollars in economic activity, is an essential piece of the region’s economy,” said NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky. “With air cargo competition increasing across the country, this study will help identify opportunities to keep our region competitive and growing.” The airports in Queens are the No. 1 generator of jobs for the borough. The winning consultant will be responsible for researching other cargo gateways in the U.S., like Anchorage, Alaska or FedEx’s hub, Memphis, Tenn., the two busiest cargo airports in the country, and determine JFK’s competitiveness in the field. The consultant must also research market conditions and trends for air cargo, the specific costs and benefits of doing business at JFK, and opportunities for infrastructure and financing programs to encourage industry growth. The
findings of the study will address opportunities to retain and expand the industry. EDC spokesman Kyle Skerlov said RFP responses are due by March 22 and the EDC hopes to finish the study by the end of the year. The study would be focused mainly on JFK, which handles 57 percent of the total regional air cargo volume. JFK is the region’s leading international cargo gateway, processing 1.3 million tons of air freight in 2010 and directly supporting 49,000 jobs, more than half of the total jobs in the industry region-wide, but the cargo industry at New York’s main airport has been reeling recently. From 2006 to 2009, air cargo processed at JFK dropped from 1.63 million tons to 1.14 million tons. In 2009, JFK’s cargo volume dropped 21.2 percent from 2008 levels. As of the end of 2010, the numbers are still below 2008 levels. Nationwide, cargo numbers in every major cargo airport were down in 2009 except for Memphis, which recorded a slight uptick of less than a tenth of a percent, but no drop was a drastic as JFK’s. The study is being funded by the New York City Industrial Development Agency and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Reach Reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or (718) 3577400, Ext. 125.
www.queenstribune.com • Feb. 24 - March 2, 2011 Tribune Page 43
By JOSEPH OROV IC As the redevelopment of Willets Point marches onward, opponents of the plan have often successfully kept themselves in the media spotlight, staging press conferences and reacting to the City’s every move. They have garnered a consistent trail of newspaper ink and TV time in the process. But less often heard are the plan’s supporters, who include elected officials and local business leaders. Each harbors specific reasons for supporting Iron Triangle’s redevelopment, which looks to transform the 62acre patch of industrial business and junk yards into a mix of housing, commerce and community space. “When this project is complete, it will create a brand new neighborhood with thousands of jobs, affordable housing options, and a vibrant retail sector, and it will remediate decades of environmental damage,” said New York City Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman Julie Wood. Both state legislators representing Willets Point have supported the project from the onset, with State Sen. Toby Stavisky (DFlushing) calling the project a win for the community on multiple levels. “I’m a yea-sayer,” said Stavisky. “When I look at the derelict, debris-ridden site, I cringe.” The area is in dire need of an economic rejuvenation, one that takes it away from its current state, according to Stavisky. “[The redevelopment] will improve the area but also make it a destination, not an area where you speed up on the highway so you don’t have to look at it,” she added. The EDC has said it owns more than 80 percent of the land in Willets Point through formal acquisitions mixed, in some cases, with helping businesses move. The project took its next step towards reality when the EDC announced the beginning of Phase 1, which would focus on a 20.2-acre area. The agency owns 90 percent of that property, with nine landowners refusing to sell. Opponents grew more vocal at the beginning of the month, when the EDC began formal proceedings that would eventually lead to the acquisition of the remaining land in Phase 1 through the use of eminent domain. The agency has maintained it will keep negotiations open and says the landowners will get fair market value for their property, should it be obtained through eminent domain. “As we seek to reach agreements with the nine remaining businesses, we will also begin the legal process that gives us the option to condemn these properties if needed, so that we can continue to move forward,” Wood said. The agency will explore relocation with
commonly used in the mid-to-late 20th century for a variety of purposes, most commonly as a cooling agent added to oil in power equipment. Due to their toxic effects, Congress banned the manufacture of PCBs in 1977, but many schools were constructed before the ban took effect. At least 740 school buildings in the City, including 130 in Queens, may contain aging lighting ballasts and caulk laden with PCBs. A known cancer-causing agent, PCBs can cause immune system dysfunction and increase the risk of chronic health problems later in life, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. In collaboration with the EPA, the City School Construction Authority conducted a still-ongoing pilot study of five schools in the city, one in each borough. Results from schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan showed elevated levels of PCBs in the air in various classrooms and common areas in all three schools. PS 183 in Queens will be tested later this year. As part of an agreement with the EPA, the City had been required to put into place a management plan, but the timeline was unclear. Since Jan. 8, the EPA has performed spot checks at six school buildings in the city, three in Brooklyn, and one each in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. Leaking lighting ballasts with elevated levels of PCBs were discovered at every building. If leaking lighting ballasts contain more than 50 parts per million PCBs, federal law requires immediate removal and disposal of the unit, and any PCB-contaminated material, at an EPA-approved facility. On Feb. 22, the EPA announced results from sampling at PS 45 in Brooklyn, where lighting ballasts were leaking at levels of up to 670,000 ppm. The capital plan came as a surprise to the bill’s supporters, said Assemblywoman Grace