Author: Dan Rose

Last week, State Committeewoman and City Council candidate Sandra Ung worked with local companies to give away PPE to a nonprofit organization in Fresh Meadows.

Ung partnered with BTZ Medsolution and Kong Ye Medical Supplies to deliver 5,000 masks for Women for Afghan Women, which will distribute to their clients across the city.

WAW promotes the rights of disenfranchised women with a variety of services, including supporting victims of domestic violence, legal assistance, immigration help and job placement.

“Women for Afghan Women is an important organization for thousands of clients in the Fresh Meadows and Flushing community,” Ung said. “The pandemic has hit our community hard, and domestic violence rates are up across the city.

Ung is running for term-limited Councilman Peter Koo’s seat in District 20, which includes Flushing and other parts of northeast Queens. Other candidates include John Choe, Neng Wang and Hailing Chen.

Samuel Rodriguez, 39, was sentenced to 39 months in jail after pleading guilty to using his cell phone to secretly record “pretty girls” at a public restrooms at LaGuardia Airport, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

Rodriguez, of College Point, worked at the airport then. He pleaded guilty to unlawful surveillance in the second degrees. Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Gia Morris sentenced him to six months in jail, followed by 10 years’ post-release supervision.

He will be required to register as a sex offender.

According to charges, on December 9, 2018, a woman entered a one-stall unisex restroom after Rodriguez had stepped out. Moments later, she heard a beeping sound.

She walked toward the sound and found a cell phone actively recording inside the paper towel dispenser. The victim played back a previous clip, which captured a video of Rodriguez setting up the phone and angling the phone to capture anyone using the stall.

“He turned an airport restroom into his own personal peep show,” Katz said. “This is unconscionable and as a result of his actions, the defendant is going to jail.”

When Rodriguez was approached by law enforcement, he reportedly said, “I know what this is about and I’m sorry.” He later said, “I was trying to video pretty girls. I was going to masturbate to it at home.”

The 109th Precinct and Councilman Paul Vallone teamed up to address the issue of illegal parking of commercial trucks, tractor-trailers and waste removal vehicles at Harvey Park in College Point.

According to the councilman, the trucks are parked around the park day and night, becoming a chronic issue for local park goers.

The Dwarf Giraffe Athletic League brought the problem to the attention of Vallone, who met with the precinct in November.

Since then, local officers have issued 15 truck/trailer parking summonses in the area.

“We did touch base with Sanitation as they were assisting, as well as focusing on the waste trucks in the area,” said Commanding Officer Captain John L. O’Connell. “We will continue to address this issue and make sure any illegally parked trucks/trailers will be issued summonses.”

To support an innovative urban greening and tree planting project, TD Bank Group and the Arbor Day Foundation awarded the Queens Botanical Garden a $20,000 grant last week.

QBG will partner with students from John Bowne High School’s agriculture program to help fight urban heat island effect by planting trees ad installing green infrastructure in the Cherry Circle of the Garden.

QBG staff and interns, as well as students from John Bowne HS and Cardozo HS, led a mulching demonstration on the newly-planted trees.

According to the garden, here are the new trees planted:

Golden Raindrops Crabapple

Malus transitoria

AKA ‘Golden Raindrops’

Japanese Snowbell                     

Styrax japonicus

AKA ‘Emerald Pagoda’

Japanese Tree Lilac

Syringa reticulata                                                 

Green Hawthorn

Crataegus viridis

AKA ‘Winter King’                        

Pink Mountain Silverbell

Halesia tetraptera var. monticola

AKA ‘Arnold Pink’             

Pagoda Dogwood

Cornus alternifolia                                                           

Mountain Silverbell

Halesia monticola

Elizabeth Magnolia

Magnolia x

AKA ‘Elizabeth’

The Central and Flushing branches of Queens Public Library will begin offering to-go services beginning Monday, November 16 at 10 a.m.

That means customers can request books in advance either online, using the QPL app, or calling 718-990-0728. Customers can also return materials to locations offering to-go services.

Flushing Library will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, with a one-hour closure from 1 to 2 p.m. to cleaning.

It will be open Tuesdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m., with closures from 3 to 4 p.m. for cleaning.

More than 20 other QPL branches are also open for to-go services.

Councilman Paul Vallone has put in legislation to co-name the intersection of Clintonville Street and Locke Avenue in Whitestone as “Msgr. John C. Tosi Way.”

Community Board 7 approved the co-naming at their monthly meeting on Monday.

Tosi was a priest for over 45 years, and a monsignor for 23 years in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

He passed away on May 23 after suffering from a coronary condition. He was 73.

Born in Flushing, Tosi attended St. Ann’s School, Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School, Cathedral College, Douglaston and Immaculate Conception Seminary.

Tosi was ordained a monsignor in 1997. In January 2005, he was named pastor of St. Luke’s, where he stayed until he died this year.

“Monsignor Tosi was a man of deep faith and firm commitment to bettering each and every community he served throughout his lifetime,” Vallone said. “His loss is felt profoundly throughout the Whitestone community and I’m proud to propose this street co-naming in his honor.”

Don’t miss this year’s Halloween Essay & Poetry Contest, sponsored annually by Assemblyman Edward Braunstein.

Students from grades two through five are invited to participate.

The essay or poem submission should have a Halloween theme, such as favorite trick-or-treat experience or a short story related to Halloween.

If interested in participating, print your full name, grade and school on the entry.

Essays and poems can be submitted to Braunstein’s office by mail (213-33 39th Avenue, Suite 238 Bayside, NY 11361) or email (braunsteine@nyassembly.gov).

District-wide prizes will be awarded to a winner in each grade. Certificates of Merit will be given to all students who participate.

The contest deadline is Thursday, November 5.

For any questions, contact Braunstein’s office at 718-357-3588.