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Volume XX • Number 45 • November 7 - 13, 2013 •
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Discuss plan to clean up toxic Broadway site By HAYDEE CAMACHO The remediation plan for 6469 Broadway, the site of a stalled mixed housing development, was discussed at the Environment and Sanitation Committee meeting of Community Board 8 last Wednesday, October 30th. The property is owned by Self-Help, the primary developer of the former proposed mixed use 11 story housing development. The organization Communilife, which was to have overseen the placement and on-site monitoring of the mentally challenged residents withdrew from the development, prompted by community opposition. Jane O’Connell, Environmental Remediation Specialist with the New York State Department of Energy Conservation outlined the plan which is expected to begin late November upon demolition of the building on site. The
structure has undergone asbestos removal. The site will follow the requirements for New York State Department of Conservation Level 1 brownfield cleanup, the highest level of cleanup and allows for unrestricted building on the site. Contaminated soil and ground water was found on the site in December 2001 after the discovery of petroleum-contaminated soil during an upgrade of the underground storage tanks. According to O’Connor, well monitoring on the west side of Broadway has found no contamination. All soils down to the bedrock level will be removed and taken to a containment facility. Contaminated ground water will be pumped out and put into tanker trucks which will be taken off site as well.
Concerns were raised at the meeting about dust exposure during excavation and transport of the soil. O’Connell elaborated on the procedure which calls for the site to be continuously watered during removal and placement onto containerized trucks. The developer is required to have an on-site engineer who will monitor the remediation and air quality levels and must file daily reports to the DEC. DEC will also be conducting its own checks. Trucks will come three times a day and must follow established New York City Department of Transportation routes for the area which is Broadway to Van Cortlandt Park South and onto the Major Deegan. O’Connell urged resident to call 311 if they see trucks on side streets. Continued on Page 10
Route for greenway link still a work in progress By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER In a quest for community input, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council met last Sunday with a group of Spuyten Duyvil locals for a noontime walking tour along the proposed Hudson River Valley Greenway
route through Riverdale. Long-range plans are for the entire greenway to stretch from Manhattan’s Battery Park to Troy, New York. The Riverdale section will link two existing nature thoroughfares—the Manhattan Water-
Longshot Lhota visits Hebrew Institute
By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER Mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota, sporting a black yarmulke, quietly blended in with worshippers at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale last Friday night. After Sabbath services, the Bronx-born-and-raised candidate got a warm introduction from Rabbi Steven Exler and was allowed to address the congregation. Lhota summed up what he would have hoped to achieve as New York City’s mayor. Safety was among his key issues, but he strongly condemned racial profiling and said police should take precautionary measures based on genuine concerns—not on personal reactions to the way potential suspects wear their pants. He noted that Election Day is in the Hebrew month of Kislev, the month of Chanukah and miracles. So he wasn’t ahead in the polls—but with everyone’s support, a miracle was possible. Rabbi Exler pointed out that the civic responsibility of getting out to vote is very much in keeping with Jewish values. Lhota’s wife, Tamra, and daughter, Kathryn, remained in the shul lobby to schmooze with congregants. A News 12 cameraman had
spotted Lhota in the men’s section and was about to start filming when he was discreetly ushered out of the sanctuary.
front Greenway trail at Dykman Street in Inwood and the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail in northern Yonkers. A sizable group assembled at one precarious section of the proposed route—cars and all manner of buses follow a downhill curve into a six-way intersection and vie with traffic from all directions as they negotiate a hairpin turn where the Henry Hudson Parkway service road converges with three prongs of Independence Avenue and two of Kappock Street.
Within eyeshot was another dicey area where a narrow pedestrian path leads on or off the Henry Hudson Bridge via a narrow stairway to the street. “This is actually the only location along our entire route, including Yonkers and Manhattan, where we still have a walk-yourbike condition,” said Jackson Wandres, director of landscape architecture and urban planning for RBA Group, consultants for the project. The plan is to widen the path and replace the stairs with a
ramp—and to add a cantilevered lane for the greenway along the southbound length of the bridge, a multimillion-dollar dream. The bike lane on Kappock Street would flank a widened parking lane in a “shared lane design implemented by the DOT throughout the city,” Wandres explained. Gerry Bogacz, NYMTC’s director of planning, teamed with Wandres in presenting the options. The locals freely vented their Continued on Page 13
Good clean fun. In a tradition that dates back to the Class of 1987, eighth-graders at St. Gabriel School celebrated Halloween night with a lively costume party. Some of the teens have been students at the school since kindergarten.