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City To Lose $350 Million If It Misses FederalDeadline, Stops Building Fort Greene Sewer PlantBY LINUS GELBERAs much as $350 million in federal aid headed for New York City may bite the dust next month if the city%u2019s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) can%u2019t persuade the United States Environmental Protection Agency to loosen fast-approaching deadlines for sewer facilities planning.The money will be lost from DEP%u2019s citywide Water Quality Management plan, which, under a Congressional mandate, is designed to unite New York%u2019s haphazard sewer and wastewater treatment system into an efficient and rational one, and as a result make the city%u2019s harbor waters swimmable and fishable by the year 2000.The plan is expected to run up a tab of close to $1.5 billion, with the state and federal governments picking up as much as 87 percent of the costs.The application deadline for the next round of funding is coming up September 30 and, according to John Cunningham, Public Information Officer of DEP, %u201c it does not look as if we%u2019re going to make it.%u201d He explained that %u201c the government wants a completed design%u201d for the two sewer plants the DEP will be building, one in the Navy Yard and one in Manhattan, and that, due to a series of problems and outside circumParks D ept.Rem oves A ilin g Elm sBY LIBBY HAYMANThe Parks Department during the summer carried out a %u201c crash program%u2019%u2019 designed to combat Dutch Elm disease along Eastern Parkway. The Parks Department horticulturalist for Brooklyn, Edmund Kowalski, reports that every infected tree, a total of 64 trees, wasremoved. Sometreeshad %u201c cosmetic surgery%u2019%u2019 to remove dead portions, with any diseased wood cut off. Stumps were %u201c debarked%u201d to prevent their bark from harboring the beetles which spread the disease.The project, carried out in reponse to public concern, is an ongoing one because inspectors must check the Parkway every two weeks or so for further signs of disease. The Parks Department is under particular pressure right now because they must also deal with damage to trees caused by the storm of August tenth, while many parts of the borough still need attention to diseased elms.One community horticulturalist whp was %u201c instrumental%u201d in notifying the Parks Department of the troubles on the Parkway is Mildred M. Graff, who says that she has not yet been able to inspect the results of the program along with Department staff. Graff reports that there are now several diseased trees in Prospect Park, near the southwest entrance. She adds that she has just seen a terminally ill elm tree right across a path from City Hall in Manhattan. The sight of such a tree %u201c confirms my suspicion that no one in the administration is aware of tree care,%u201d she comments.Both Gr iff and the Parks Department stress the importance of %u201c alertness%u201d on the Parkway. At the same time, pits are being dug for a major new planting of trees on the Parkway, including several varieties of elms which the Parks Department considers %u201c resistant%u201d to Dutch Elm Disease, but which Graff says will simply harbor the disease even longer.stances, %u201c We%u2019re not going to get them in time.%u201dCunningham attributes the slowdown in design progress to the 1975 fiscal crisis, which scaled down the size of several projects and drew away city engineers, to problems that have been experienced with construction, like the collapse of several houses along Columbia St. in Red Hook after sewer main digs wrenched and weakened foundations, and to changing federal regulations, which keep changing facets of the design.One of the hardest hit parts of the water quality program will be the Red Hood Sewer Treatment plant, now being built in Fort Green%u2019s Navy Yard. The plant,with its adjoining sewer line reconstruction, accounts for $378 million of the total citywide program.While Cunningham emphasized that the cutoff in money would not end the construction, he admitted that, as funds are allocated in chunks for three to five year phases, %u201cthis will set us back.%u201d He estimated that.the slowdown would show itself in late 1982, or just before the next funding period begins. So far, the DEP has written to several federal agencies asking for a change in procedures, but it has received no response. %u201c What we want is to have that money put in escrow,\Cunningham asserted. %u201c It could be as much as $350 millior-we areextremely worried about it.%u201dAlthough the DEP hs made no plans in this direction, one source inside the organization predicted that the matter would end in a suit brought through Federal Court to have the money set aside.Meanwhile, local residents and organizations are preparing to oppose the construction of the plant at all, fearing that it will smell up and pollute the immediate area. In a letter sent to President Jimmy Carter and a rather impressive array of local, state and federal officials, the Farragut Houses Tenant%u2019s Association, the Vinegar Hill Association, and the Bridge Plaza %u201c Action 12%u201d Block Association expressed hopes that plans for the plant can be altogether scrapped.%u201cOur communities already include numerous pollutant-creating facilities including the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, the Long Island Expressway, the BrooklynQueens Expressway, numerous factories, and a Con Edison plant,%u201d the letter states. %u201c In view of this we are requesting that you go on public record in opposition to the construction of this plant, which endangers the health of the residents in our communities and the general viability of our communities.%u201d The letter also requests Carter%u2019s presence at the final hearing on the plant construction, which will be held on Sept. 6 at 7:30 pm at the Dr. White Center, 200 Gold St.H ousing th e H om eless O f P ark S lope%u2019s S tre e ts N e w s b r i e f s :BY LINUS GELBERThe Good Samaritan spirit is alive and well in Park Slope, and perhaps nowhere more visible than in the offices of Christian Help in Park Slope (CHiPS). That organization, nestled down on Fifth Avenue, has been providing free food, clothing and shelter to the local indigent and needy for more than six years, and now has a new plan int he works: its members would like to see an overnight residence set up to meet the needs of the area%u2019s street people.%u201c Right now,%u201d says Ed Mohler, sitting on the CHiPS storefront at 233 Fifth Ave., %u201c we%u2019re trying to raise the consciousness of the neighborhood toward the needs of people that live in the street. We can%u2019t meet their needs alone; either we get community support, or the needs will simply go unmet.%u201dWhile CHiPS already has a home for the homeless, currently serving 14 people, Mohler believes that what they%u2019ve got simply isn%u2019t enough. %u201c We%u2019ve got people sleeping in our doorways and vestibules, living in front of our houses,%u201d he says. %u201c One of the most widely known men is named Pop %u2014 he lives on Seventh Avenue. You can see him nights. He sleeps in front of the Gazebo, in front of Snooky%u2019s Pub, in a door next to the Key Food. Any money given him turns into liquor. Everyone wants to help him, but what can they do? Send him into a detox program? If he doesn%u2019t feel that people care about him and people love him, he%u2019ll get out and go right back to the same environment.%u201dThe home Mohler and CHiPS envisualize would be one with a staff of some 150 part-time volunteers, a van to go out and pick up wanderers in the evening and full food and bath facilities. It would only be open nights, to prevent the people it serves from becoming dependent on it, running hours perhaps from 8 pm to 7 am the next day. Homeless men and women would be washed, fed and put up for the night, and then set out the next morning to try to fend for themselves.Essentially, this is an extension of the philosophy of the house the group currently sponsors at 314 Fourth St., between Fifth and Sixth Aves. There, 14 people live in and assume the roles in the maintenance and upkeep of the building. The operation, Mohler notes, is not a break-even one, but CHiPS%u2019 members chip in to pay up the difference.%u2018Each person who comes to the house takes according to his needs, and gives according to his talents,%u201d Mohler says. %u201cThat way, when they begin to feel some pride in what they%u2019re doine and in themselves, they can begin to channel themselves toward a. more meaningful life, towards training, a job, a pension, perhaps even disability, if they%u2019re eligible for it. What%u2019s more important is that they know that they%u2019re loved and cared aboutso they can feel better about themselves.%u201dThe house is not near to materializing, but the things that would go along with it are pretty much finalized. There are food commitments from many of the places that supply them no local butchers give meat bones, scrap and some marketable meats, nearby bakeries like One Smart Cookie on Seventh Avenue give breads, cookies and cakes that are getting slightly old, and other establishments, like the Mongoose Food Co-op, contribute leftovers and other products. Clothing continues to be given, and Mohler believes that, with the advent of a functional center, CHiPS would be able to pick up dozens of new volunteers.%u201c Essentially,%u201d he states, %u201cwe think that if the poor in resources meet the rich in resour9es, and if the poor in spirit meet the rich in spirit, that everyone will profit from the interchange and the give and take.%u201dFire PolicyRebates DueAs many as 70,000 New York City propertyholders are entitled to a refund on their fire insurance policies, if they were purchased under the Fair Plan, reports Councilman Abe Gerges. Rebates will be due for customers that bought new insurance in July and August: Gerges reports that,because of overloads in computers that must process some 100,000 statewide rebates, checks should start arrivin g tor local policyholders sometime in October or November. The rebate comes at the tail end of state legislation that lowers the initial cost of five insurance of the Fair Plan.Board Six PlansFirst MeetingCommunity Board Six, after a brief hiatus for the summer vacation, will hold its first meeting of the fall on September 12. The Board will consider the citywide Water Quality Management Plan, which is slated to build a sewer treatment plant by 1986 in Fort Greene%u2019s Navy Yard and construct a new, more efficient and cleaner pumping station at the head of the Govvanus Canal and present a recommendation on it, as well as discussing upcoming Budget plans 1 and priorities. Committee reports should include a rundown on the 'Metropolitan Transit Authority%u2019s plans to eliminate three local bus lines, two of which are in Board Six%u2019s area.The meeting will be held on Stpt. 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Third Floor courtroom in Borough Hall. For more information on the meeting, call 643-3027.Board NineCancels MeetingThe August meeting of Community Board 9 in Crown Heights was cancelled at short notice on Tuesday evening, August 28. Several Board and community members arrived for the meeting only to discover a sign posted on the door of Medgar Evers College, the regular meeting place, announcing the cancellation. The notice was signed by the Board Chairman, Ed Hightower, and had been posted %u201c around six o%u2019clock%u201d according to college personnel.The secretary at the Community Board office said that the cancellation was the result of such a large number of excuses sent to the Board office by members that it was obvious that no quorum would be achieved. She said that extensive efforts had been made to reach members after the cancellation was decided on at 4 p.m., the day of the meeting.Chairman Ed Hightower could not be reached for comment because he went out of town on vacation shortly after the meeting date. The next meeting of Board Nine will be the regular September meeting on September 25.Brooklyn Sharesi > ____ i ___________ jl d* &ueveiupm ciii wBorough buffs take heart: Mayor Ed Koch announced this week that Brooklyn, Manhattan%u2019s black sheep sister, has received $77.9 million indevelopment funds since he became mayor a year and a half ago. Koch further explained that he is convinced that money breeds its own, and that thus the more money you funnel into an area, the more money will follow it of its own accord.%u201c My goal is to increase such spending in order to encourage more economic activity and stimulate more private sector investment in Brooklyn,%u201d he commented.Of the $44 million in industrial projects that have been encouraged and guided citywide by the Public Development Corporation, he reports, Brooklyn has received a hearty $11.5 million share, or more than a quarter of the total capital investment. Similarly, nearly half of the city%u2019s neighborhood stabilization funds, tabulated at $27 million, have reached the borough, providing $11.2 million in Community Development funds. One quarter, or $4.5 million, of the $16.2 million in Economic Development Administration loans for public works projects have found they way to these Eastern banks on the East River.Through a battery of loan and subsidized repair projects, Brooklyn also weighed in with a total of 5,702 units of rehabilitated housing in lower and middle income areas, as opposed to 4,239 in Manhattan.L.I.U. ReadiesFor the DisabledDisabled students at Long Island University who would not have been able to continue their education without assistance can expect help for the 1979-1980 academic term.The Brooklyn Center of Long Island University Special Services Program for Disabled College Students has received a grant of $198,878 from the U.S. Office of Education to continue providing specialized services to the disabled student population.Academic tutorial programs, personal and career counseling, and coordination of sign language interpreters, as well as the availability of brailled and recorded reading matter and frequent cultural excursions to museums, concerts and theatre productions, have earned the program unlimited praise.Robert Nathanson, program director at the Brooklyn Center, speaks positively ot the participating students. %u201c They have distinguished themselves in scholarship, business, education, the arts. Six of our students graduated with honors this June,%u201d he stated.September 6,1979, The PHOENIX, Page 5