Page 7 - Demo
P. 7
N e w s b r i e f sFlatbush GroupsGiven MoneyI wo Flatbush organizations have been allocated a total of $150,000 from this year%u2019s State Supplemental Budget to help their area against burgeoning crime.One, the Flatbush Tenant%u2019s Council, received its half of the funds to continue and expand its already-successful Block Security program. The other $75,000 is bound for the Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC), to fund a neophyte security proposal that will use this money to set itself going.%u201c Our program ,%u2019%u2019 said Mike Weiss, President of the FDC, %u201c will be very comprehensive anti-crime: that includes organizing blocks and neighborhoods against crime, setting up a co-ordinating council, even providing hardware, like cars and mo-peds.%u201d While Weiss was quick to note that the proposal has not yet reached a solid form, he said that input from the community so far tends toward %u201c not spending a lot of money on staff, personnel, administration, overhead %u2014 but buying hardware, going to where we can do the most good, so to speak, purchasing capital items that we can use in the community.%u201dWeiss%u2019 tentative first priority is a functional, simple and powerful radio base with mobile transmitters, so patrols out in the street can easily communicate back and forth with one another and a static base. Beyond that, %u201cwe might be able to stick in some mo-peds,%u201d he hoped, but pointed out that between the gas shortage and tight funds, %u201cwe won%u2019t be buying any cars.%u201dThe FDC also received an underwriting check from Citibank on July 6 to pay for the printing of a color-coded tour guide and metal directing signs to be posted along streets throughout the area. Weiss explained that the FDC hopes to institute a bike-and-foot tour it has designed, %u201c showing 50 sites of historical or architectural significance%u201d by the time of the annual Flatbush Frolic next September 16.%u2014LZGOrchestra GetsProgram PrizeThe Brooklyn Philharmonia received a $750 award early this month, acknowledging its work both in concert halls and out.The Philharmonia was named one of four winners in the Metropolitan Orchestra category for adventuresome programming at a conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League held in San Francisco. Its five-year-old %u201c Meet the Moderns%u201d series, in which modern compositions and styles are explored, and its hefty %u201cCommunity Series%u201d of local performances were particularly hailed. At the convention, Philharmonia Manager Maurice Edwards accepted the orchestra%u2019s honors in the absence of its Musical Director, Lukas Foss.Sloper RailParking Rules%u201cTwo is enough, %u2019 %u2019 say some 1000 residents of Park Slope in a petition protesting what they see as inconvenient and overextended alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules.The residents of the area bounded by 9th and 15th Sts. between 5th Ave. and Prospect Park West feel that, since the Department of Sanitation cleans each side of a given street only------ --- iV%u00bbo n orlrin n lim its - \\Jt 1VV %u00ab* \%u2022%u2022%u2022%u00bb %u00a3---------otions should be cut from a current four days a week to only two.%u201c It%u2019s sensible to reduce the regulations,%u201d asserted Assemblyman Joe Ferris, who delivered the request to Sanitation Commissioner Norman Steisel. %u201c Especially in areas like Park Slope and other brownstone neighborhoods, where you don%u2019t have a lot of public garages %u2014 it%u2019s a great inconvenience. Plus, when you spend half an hour driving around looking for parking, you waste a great deal of gas. That%u2019s the raison d%u2019etre for this right now; it made sense before, but it%u2019s especially pertinent now, with gas on its way to more than a dollar a gallon.%u201dSteisel has not yet replied to the petition, but Ferris feels that the chances are good that regulations will be changed, citing similar cutbacks in other nearby areas such as Flatbush.Slope LibraryRepairs NearA finalized work schedule for $510,000 worth of repairs and renovations for the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library was recently released by the city Department of General Services. The building, located on 431 Sixth Ave., has been plagued by a leaky roof and decaying physical plant, and local residents, politicians and library officials have spent several vears securing the funds for a comprehensive facelifting job.%u201c We%u2019re practically rebuilding the thing,%u201d said Walter McGill, Director of Buildings and Repair for the Brooklyn Public Library, of the now-imminent work. %u201cThat%u2019s one of the prettiest buildings we%u2019ve got%u2014we%u2019re going to go over it very, very thoroughly.%u201dBids for the work will open on August 7. with an eye toward awarding a contract by the 24th of the month. After that, actual reconstruction should take from 24 to 30 months to complete from its September 14 kick-off date. While the job is in progress, library facilities will be temporarily moved to an as-yet unchoscn site in the area.Spring Is SprungIn DowntownOut of a rubber hose it comes, Brooklyn%u2019s very own natural spring water. As the curious gather, wary pedestrians negotiate their way over and around the stream of water that is now pouring up from the basement and out of the State Street back of Brooklyn%u2019s Central Court building at 120 Schermerhorn Street between Court and Smith.Officials at the court and workers on the site call the clear stream of water a %u201c natural spring.%u201d But although this reporter tasted a drop of the water and found it minerally and not poisonous in drop sized amounts, drinking of the liquid is not advised.The water problem is %u201c not a new one%u201d for the court, reports A1 Wasserman, deputy director of public relations at the city Department of Environmental Protection. %u201c Ground water is a periodic problem%u201d which has plagued the courthouse for many years, notes Wasserman. It is usually controlled by using a sump pump io siphon the water directly into the sewer system from the courthouse basement, says Wasserman. A malfunction in the connection about six weeks ago caused water to flood the courthouse basement, says Wasserman. The problem was alleviated by installing the rubber tubing to carry the water out to the street where it can rain into a nearbv sewer hole.The rubber hosing will be removed as soon as the %u201c in houseconnection%u201d is repaired, reports Wasserman, who says that these repairs are in progress. In the process of fixing the connection, the sump pump has also been replaced. There are. no plans to bring in a spring water bottling business. %u2014J.S.Marathon EntryDeadline NearsLast chance to request an entry form for admission to the New York City Marathon, a five borough event, scheduled for Sunday, October 21st.12,000 entrants, who have already been accepted, will be notified on July 15th. The deadline for the remaining 2,000 is July 31 and will be drawn from a lottery in early August.To request an entry form, do not phone, but send a self addressed stamped envelope to: New York City Marathon, PO Box 1388, GPO New York, New York 10001.The Marathon, 26 miles 385 yards long, has grown considerably since 1976 when 2,000 runners competed and 500 had to be rejected. In 1977, 5,000 were accepted and 2,000 were rejected, and in 1978, 11,400 entrants were accepted and 5,000 were rejected. This year, the Marathon headquarters will be the Sheraton Center at Seventh Ave. between 52nd and 53rd Streets.Feds AssaultBoerum HouseBY LINUS GELBERIt could have been doubled as a scene from a B-gradc cops-androbbers film, but it was the real thing last Thursday afternoon when a squad of men, armed with pistols and shotguns and backed by bull-horns, swarmed into a groundlevel apartment at 151 Bond Street on the corner of Bergen in Boerum Hill.It was like a Bogart remake, complete with a wooden gate broken off its hinges to head off any escape through a blind alley behind and, after a flurry of confusion and excitement, the bundling off of the villains into the distance. By the time the dust cleared, both sides had left, leaving behind a block of bewildered bystanders.%u201cThere were six or eight cops,%u201d recalled Neftali Colon, the owner of the building, who watched the action from a stoop across the street. %u201cThey were from the FBI, carrying radios and guns.%u201d He cradled his hands more than a foot apart and looked down at them. %u201c Big guns,%u201d he said. %u201cThey were after some drugs, thev said cocaine or something.%u201d The FBI, however, denies any part in the action. One spokesperson last week suspected that the bust might have been undertaken by the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms police; a second pointed toward yet another federal policing agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA;. %u201c It definitely wasn%u2019t u s,%u201d stated Quentin Ertel of the FBI%u2019s Public Affairs Department. %u201c Our involvement in drug cases is strictly secondary.%u201d Local precincts, meanwile, as they are not part of the federal arrest system, had received no word of the arrests and have no records of charges preferred against any individual.As it turns out, the bust was most likely a product of the DEA. %u201c It was probably us,%u201d admitted Jim Judge from DEA Public Affairs, explaining that records from July 9 showed that a squad of men had indeed been working at cocaine surveillance at 150 Bond St., which puts the actual address within range of administrative orclerical error. Judge could not, however, tell from the sheets what sort of operation was involved, whether any arrests were male, or how many men were on the squad.%u201c I'm not sorry about what the FBI did, I%u2019m just sorry about my door,%u201d commented landlord Colon, indicating the freshly splintered wood where the gates had been broken. %u201cThat will cost me two, three hundred dollars to fix%u2014I wish they told me before, so I could open it. Or%u2014see?%u2014show them that the inside is blocked off.%u201dAtlantic GalleryCloses SeasonThe last show of the season for the Atlantic Gallery will feature a comraderie of artists who have all been, at one time or another, members of the galleries stretched along the avenue. Covering a variety of media, the works presented will be those of sculptor Ira Rappaport, photographer Jacob Bentkover, and four painters, Joan Rappaport, Carol Levin, BarbaraSpiller and Pat Stegman. in the Back Room of the gallery, there will be a show by members of works on paper.The main exhibit will run through July 15, with a reception on July 1 from 2-6 pm. The Gallery, located at 81 Atlantic Ave., will be closed on July 4; regular hours are Tues-Fri from 2-6 pm and weekends noon-6pm. Call 624-8795 for further information.Prpgram Trains For Jobs$300,899 of a $1.5 million City Department of Employment contract will be administred by four community-based organizations in three boroughs. One of them, a job-training program, has been allocated to Brooklynites United in labor Development (BUILD), at 706 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights.Persons interested in participating in the program can contact Rabbi Joseph Rosenfeld, BUILD project director, at BUILD headquarters, 706 Eastern Parkway, 774-8488. %u2014J.K.The July 4th send-off of the Red Hood KenyanRunners to compete in the National Youthchampionships in Dayton, Ohio, was helped by StateSenator Martin Connor and local organizations who*provided funds.Red Hook Track TeamCompetes Out of StateMore was hailed in Red Hook on July 4 than the country%u2019s anniversary. Independence Day also marked a Community Send-Off for the Red Hook Kenyan Runners who are off to Dayton, Ohio to run in the Third Annual Track and Field Association/USA National Boys and Girls Championships.Attending the send-off were families, friends, community members and State Senator Martin Connor, who, with District Manager Joan White of Community Board Six, raised on a shoestring the needed $1250 in air fare to send the team out. Money was gleaned by the two from local businesses and labor groups, including Local 236 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1814 of the International Longshoreman%u2019s Association, and Combustion Equipment Associates.The team, founded by coach John Alson in late 1877, has become one of the most successful citywide teams, racing not only in the metropolitan area but also in nearby cities like Philadelphia, and Providence, and states as far away as North Carolina. Until now it has supported itself through donations and collection rounds but now it can, observed Alston, start spending funds raised %u201cfor badly needed equipment and future meets.%u201d%u201c We are trying to build a strong track team in Red Hook,%u201d he continued, %u201c and I deeply appreciate the efforts of Senator Connor, the unions, and the businesses. Their support made a real difference.%u201dJuly 12. 1979, The PHOENIX. Page 7

