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Volume XVIII • Number 22 • May 5 - 11, 2011 •
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Skate rink contract: Is the ‘fix’ in? By BRENDAN McHUGH As the subway lumbered overhead, the long-awaited site meeting for the proposed iceskating rink in Van Cortlandt Park was forced to move into the Stadium to avoid the screeching noise of the train. “I thought it was funny that we couldn’t actually have the meeting where the rink is going to be because of the train. We couldn’t hear each other,” Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said. The rink will be on unused tennis courts at the corner of Manhattan College Parkway and Broadway, right at the end of the No. 1 subway line. Trains come in and out of the station every few minutes. The courts are unused because they were too noisy for tennis players. But noise aside, new concerns have been raised that the bidding process is a sham, with one contractor having been given advance information, as the other bidders and the community were kept in the dark about the project. Three potential bidders for concessions at the skating rink
were at the April 28 meeting along with Dinowitz, various representatives of elected officials and a handful of Community Board 8 members. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the community outnumber companies before,” said Ice Rink Events project manager Ron Kraut. Along with Ice Rink Events, the American Skating Entertain Centers, LLC (ASEC) and Rink Management Services Corporation were at the site meeting. All have multiple skating rinks throughout the country and in a handful in other countries. Ice Rink Events was discovered by the Riverdale Review to have been in contact with the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy in 2010, before the rink was publicly announced. The City Controller’s Office said it probably won’t affect their eligibility but couldn’t say for certain until the bidding process is over on May 16. But the whole episode smacks to many as reflecting a rigged bidding process. ASEC runs the Westchester Skating Academy, among 11 Continued on Page 19
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Observers wonder whether Ice Rink Events, whose project manager Ron Kraut, pictured at left in blue jacket, has an unfair advantage in the consideration of proposals for the controversial Van Cortlandt Park skate rink. His company was involved in planning the rink months before the proposal became public.
School for Scandal: Is it education or merely a real estate deal? By MIAWLING LAM A Taiwanese big-money developer will provide a $400,000 loan to the controversial Kingsbridge Innovative Design Charter School so it can occupy their new building – and potentially bring in millions in rent. Corlaton Realty offered to bail out the troubled school following a series of frenetic last-minute negotiations last week. KIDS co-founder and board chair John Torres briefed his fellow trustees on the latest twist during an emergency board meeting on April 28. He said the property developer, whose global headquarters are in Taiwan, will provide the hefty loan so it can avoid having an empty building on its hands. The firm has spent millions of dollars constructing a school on 3120 Corlear Avenue—the space that KIDS is slated to move into this September. “They’re doing this because they have to protect their $1.3 million investment in building the facility across the street,” Torres said. “He’s been building that school now for two years, so the thing is, now he’s built that school, who’s going to move in it?” “It’s only in his best interest to protect the investment he’s made, because there’s no other suitors for that space.” The financial bailout is expected to raise serious
questions about an incestuous relationship between the charter school and real estate interests with no involvement in education. The contract’s terms have not been made public, but Torres said the 15-year loan boasted a favorable interest rate of 6 percent and there were no closing or processing costs. He also emphasized that if the school is placed in receivership or the board is dissolved, the contract is automatically cancelled. Funds will be wired into the school’s bank account in four to six weeks. KIDS has spent the last two months cleaning up its act since the New York State Education Department slapped the school with a probation order on March 24. Authorities threatened to revoke its charter and shut the school down due to financial and educational mismanagement. It was given until April 29 to correct its problems and comply with a 16-point remedial action plan. Torres said all 16 issues have been rectified and that the only remaining task is to secure a $130,000 bridge loan by May 30. With the assistance of Tom Ramunto, an internal finance specialist with New Jersey-based firm M&M Construction, Torres said he was hopeful of securing
an approval before the deadline. Meanwhile, hundreds of anxious parents, teachers and concerned community members packed into the school’s multipurpose room for a public meeting on April 26. The forum, hosted by the New York State Education Department, provided former and current employees and parents with an opportunity to air their opinions and make their voices heard. Among the speakers was former school principal Francesca Weiss, who broke her vow of silence and spoke publicly for the first time. “I submit that the question of whether KIDS should have a future beyond June is not whether these board members can find the money to run it but instead whether they have the character to run it,” Weiss said. Teacher Michelle Lopez said she was disappointed with the way her colleagues were laid off and said the school’s administration failed to take into account the welfare of its students. “I felt that the way the layoffs happened did not take into consideration any of the children and how it would affect them,” she said. “Children weren’t given a chance to say goodbye to their teachers of seven months. They laid off two teachers in more than one classroom, leaving the kids with Continued on Page 12