Gas Tank Park Ready For Second Phase

The Parks Department's Nancy Prince details the second phase of work on Gas Tank Park in Elmhurst. Parks Department officials updated Community Board 4 on the state of the former KeySpan gas tank site at the body's Sept. 2 meeting at St. John's Queens Hospital in Elmhurst.

Parks employees Helen Ogrinz and Nancy Prince came armed with a slideshow and diagrams of the seven-acre site, located at the intersection of Grand Avenue and 80th Street at the confluence of Maspeth, Elmhurst and Woodside.

Prince announced that the city agency has entered the second stage of construction of the park.

The first phase, she noted, included establishing fencing along the park's borders and retaining walls along the Long Island Rail Road right-of-way; adding fill to the site to add topography; planting 365 trees (including some crabapple trees); paving a pathway (currently used for construction vehicles, it will be for pedestrians when the park opens); creating entrances on 57th Avenue and Grand Avenue; adding drainage and constructing an artificial turf field.

Prince noted that the artificial turf will be made of a different material than the substance normally used at city parks. That synthetic substance has come under fire both for being too hot for children and for possibly containing carcinogens.

The project's second phase will result in the addition of pathways, the creation of a comfort station (which in diagrams evokes the look of the old gas tanks), a playground with a spray shower, several more play areas for older and younger children, more trees, benches for sitting, and a tobogganing area.

The park will also include some sort of historical signage and, on the park's northwest corner, a Vietnam veterans' memorial.

Ogrniz noted that the trees come with a "two-year guarantee;" any trees that die within the first two years of planting will be replaced at the contractor's expense.

Board 4 Chairman Louis Walker led off the questioning by asking Prince and Ogrinz about the reported presence of several large boulders inside the park. Ogrinz noted that several of them were given as gifts to the park by a local contractor and by the Brooklyn office of the Department of Environmental Protection. The Parks Department is investigating how to best use them.

Board member Thomas MacKenzie asked about the fencing on the site; Ogrinz said that the height varies from seven to 12 feet. She added that the park can be completely closed if the community asks for it.

In response to another question on safety, Prince would add that the park would be lighted at night and the park's topography would allow onlookers to see into the playground; however, "we don't do cameras in parks," she noted.

Ogrinz also noted that KeySpan has remediated the site "to a residential level" prior to the addition of new fill at the park.

The board voted unanimously to endorse the project as it stands so far.

What's in a name?

The diagrams shown in the slideshow referred to the site as Gas Tank Park, the informal name being used by community residents and local officials alike.

However, one board member wondered if that would be the site's official name.

Prince assured her that the name is indeed an informal one, and that the Parks Department will only decide on a name once the park is completed (which, she would note later, would be sometime in 2010). She added that the Parks Commissioner (Adrian Benepe or his successor) would be involved in the naming of the park.

However, Pat Toro, president of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 32, would later dispute that claim.

Toro, who is involved with the creation of the memorial, claimed that in consultation with the Parks Department, representatives of the agency told him "flat out" that the site would indeed be called Gas Tank Park.

Toro, who called working the Parks "very frustrating," claimed that the name was scrapped after he gave a call to Rep. Joseph Crowley.

As for the memorial, Toro noted that he could not begin fund-raising efforts until a design for the memorial was finalized.

St. John's update

Annette Hastings, the executive director of St. John's Queens Hospital, stopped by to update residents on goings-on at the facility.

Hastings announced that the hospital is finishing up the creation of a new outpatient radiology unit, with a CT scanner that can cut scan time from three hours to 15 minutes. In the meantime, patients are being wheeled out to a mobile unit parked right outside the hospital for CT scans.

The hospital has also streamlined its emergency room triage and care protocols to get patients faster treatment.

"They no longer have to do the shuffle of registration and triage," said Hastings; "patients who now come in to our emergency room are met by a greeter, who does a very short registration and then walks them into what we call our rapid evaluation unit" where patients are triaged and registered at once.

This will cut the average time from entry to treatment from six to three hours, she stated.

Hastings also noted that the hospital is actively seeking a replacement for Debra Pagano Cohen, St John's former public relations spokesperson. Cohen, who has taken a position with New York Hospital Queens, has also resigned from Board 4, according to Walker.

Cohen's resignation "leaves a major hole in my organizational structure," Hastings admitted.

Chairman, District Mgr. report

Walker, in his report, noted that Queens Borough President Helen Marshall has awarded a grant of $7 million for ongoing work at the new Elmhurst branch of the Queens Library. The monies are in the Fiscal Year 2009 budget.

District Manager Richard Italiano noted that the board has new offices, on 46-11 104th St. in Corona.

Liquor licenses

Board 4 endorsed two liquor licenses and refused to endorse another.

Receiving the board's approval were Xiotis Restaurant Corp. (d.b.a. Silver Spoon Food Court) at 58-21 Junction Blvd. in Elmhurst, and Queens Center Apple LLC (d.b.a. Applebee's) at 90-15 Queens Blvd. in Elmhurst (inside the Queens Center mall).

Anthology Bar & Lounge, at 92- 02 Corona Ave. in Elmhurst, failed to garner the board's endorsement.

Several other licenses up for vote were tabled for next month's meeting.

McKenzie takes the dais

McKenzie, a local historian who serves as chairman of the board's Environmental Committee, opined on both topics.

Speaking on the first subject, McKenzie claimed that George Washington encamped in Elmhurst during the Revolutionary War. He asked the board to support a measure to have artwork displayed at the Elmhurst Library to commemorate the event. An earlier proposal for a more abstract piece of art to be displayed at the library fell into disfavor with the board.

The board unanimously voted in favor of McKenzie's motion.

As for environmental matters, McKenzie complained about the seeming disappearance of wastebaskets along Roosevelt Avenue, Broadway, Queens Boulevard and Corona Avenue.

He also noted that catch basins in the neighborhood were recently inspected.

Board 4 meets on the first Tuesday of every month; next month's meeting place is to be determined.