SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has issued the following advisory:

Due to flooding and power related shutdowns caused by Hurricane Sandy, wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations have discharged untreated wastewater into New York City waterways. The New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene advises that direct contact with the Hudson River, East River, New York Harbor, Jamaica Bay and the Kill Van Kull for recreational activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing or any other water activity that would entail possible direct contact with the water should be avoided until further notice.

The Department of Environmental Protection is responding to the impacts caused by Hurricane Sandy on its waste water treatment facilities and will monitor water quality conditions through testing to verify when these water bodies are safe for recreational uses.

State Senator Marty Golden will be hosting a town hall meeting tonight, October 23, 7:00 p.m. at the Salt Marsh Nature Center, 3302 Avenue U at East 33rd Street. Golden is inviting residents of the community to attend and discuss quality of life and legislative issues.

Representatives from the New York City Department of Finance, the Department of Buildings, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the New York City Police Department, the New York City Fire Department and the Department of Sanitation have confirmed their attendance.

“I look forward to leading these conversations with the community so to provide an update on a variety of neighborhood issues and important legislation which I have recently been working on,” Golden stated. “I am glad to join with representatives of key City agencies to work with residents to resolve local problems in an effort to improve our quality of life. I hope you will join me…”

For more information, contact Golden’s office at (718) 238-6044 or email at golden@nysenate.gov.

Source: Google Maps

It’s lies, damned lies!

That’s the response offered by the owner of Z-Best Car Wash at 2784 Coney Island Avenue, which has received thousands of dollars in violations from the city, in addition to earning the ire of a local politician calling for it to cease operations.

Allegations that the business is skirting zoning laws and making too much noise are “completely false,” said Z-Best’s owner, Rusell Shern, who added that the car wash is being “treated unfairly” by Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz.

Asked to elaborate on the violations and the business’ relationship with neighbors, Shern declined further comment.

The controversy erupted last week, when Cymbrowitz demanded the city issue a cease-and-desist order against the car wash’s operations, claiming that they have refused to reform despite more than a year of complains from neighbors.

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The New York City Department of Environmental Protection shut down Jerome Avenue between East 17th Street and East 18th Street today, as crews worked to repair a broken sewage line.

The line backed up, according to a worker on the scene, spurring them to open the fire hydrant and empty the pipes. The street is covered with water and “heavy grease,” according to the DEP worker.

Repairs should be completed and the roadway opened by approximately 5:00 p.m.

Source: Google Maps

The following is a press release from the offices of Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz:

Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn) says a Sheepshead Bay car wash calling itself ‘Z Best’ is actually ‘Z Loudest’ – and he’s supporting a city agency’s petition for a cease-and-desist order against the “noisy neighbor” business.

Cymbrowitz, who represents the community where the Coney Island Avenue car wash is located, says his office has been flooded with calls during the past year from residential neighbors complaining about the constant racket coming from the business’s machinery, “interrupting their sleep and their daily lives.”

He contacted the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, which has issued numerous violations to the car wash for excessive noise. Commissioner Carter H. Strickland, Jr. of DEP told Assemblyman Cymbrowitz that if the noise complaints persisted, his agency would ask the city’s Environmental Control Board to issue a cease-and-desist order.

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SEAL! (Credit: Melissa Alvarez, Senior Project Biologist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District.)

The following was sent to us by Dr. JoAnne Castagna, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District:

As construction workers maneuver bulldozers and spread sand to restore the degrading marsh island, Yellow Bar Hassock in Jamaica Bay, their work is being closely observed by an area resident.

“For the past few months we’ve seen him on the site. He just keeps doing his thing,” said Melissa Alvarez, a senior project biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District.

The resident Alvarez is referring to is a harbor seal who has been seen lying on the dredge pipeline that is delivering the sand and sunning himself as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performs its work.

“I find it so amazing every time we construct one of these island projects how quickly wildlife will use this area.”

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“Bullet Points” is our new format for Community Board 15 meeting coverage, providing takeaways we think are important. Information in Bullet Points is meant only to be a quick summary, and some issues may be more deeply explored in future articles.

Boardmembers push to beautify Manhattan Beach, oppose aesthetic improvements at Knapp Street sewage plant: Parks Department’s Brooklyn Chief of Staff Martin Maher came before the Board last night to provide the community with updates on ongoing projects in the district – including at Bill Brown Park, Galapo Playground, Brigham Street Park and Emmons Avenue – but the presentation quickly turned to Manhattan Beach as members barraged Maher with questions and complaints (video above).

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I know, I know – you’re all tired of hearing about last week’s National Grid gas outage along Ocean Parkway in Gravesend. And, after sounding off about the lack of coverage in other media, I thought we were pretty much done with it, too.

But, apparently, one more entity wants to make sure their voice is heard on the matter: National Grid itself.

The company produced a video on YouTube to help visualize the tremendous amount of resources deployed, not the least of which was 300 crews working around the clock for most of the week. It also shows some of the on-site and off-site planning and logistics that went into the effort. Clearly, it must have been an exceptional operation for National Grid to go out of their way to showcase it.

How do you think National Grid did in responding to the Ocean Parkway gas outage?

Photo by Yuriy Semenov

There will be a public hearing of the New York City Water Board at 7:00 p.m., April 24, at Public School 222, 3301 Quentin Road in Marine Park, concerning a proposed seven percent increase on water rates. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Fiscal Year 2013’s water rate increase of seven percent is slated to take effect on July 1, 2012. According to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, if the rate hike is implemented, based on the average consumption of 80,000 gallons per year, a typical single-family homeowner will see their water and sewer bills increase from $877 per year to $939 per year.

Additionally, the average multi-family unit with metered billing will see an increase from $571 per year for each individual dwelling unit to $610 per year for each dwelling.

The hearing is open to the public. However, residents who wish to speak much register by contacting Diane Easparro at the New York City Water Board at (718) 595-3591 or deasparro@dep.nyc.gov. You must register to speak no later than 5:00 p.m. on the day before the hearing (that’s today!) Remarks are limited to five minutes in length.

National Grid natural gas began pumping through all the Gravesend pipelines on Saturday, after workers finished pumping out 50,000 gallons of water. It capped off a five-day ordeal for 1,200 households forced to go without hot water and other amenities.

The company will now begin refilling the 160 excavation sites they dug throughout the neighborhood.

On Sunday, they issued the following press release announcing the restoration of service, and thanking the community for their cooperation:

As of Saturday, all customers affected by the Gravesend natural gas outage have been contacted to have their appliances re-lit. All have been visited for re-lights, 93 percent have been restored, National Grid is coordinating around the customers’ schedules and working with plumbers on a few sites to safely restore the remaining locations.

The extensive restoration effort involved purging over 50,000 gallons of water from about four miles of gas main spanning an area of 46 blocks after a high-pressure water main leak sent thousands of gallons of water into the local gas system.

Over 300 crews have worked around-the-clock since the outage began. The crews have dug over 160 excavations to support the water pumping effort. Some of the excavations will remain open for a period in order for National Grid to monitor that additional pumping is not required. These excavations around the neighborhood are clearly marked, but National Grid urges residents to be extra aware of their surroundings and use caution, especially at night.

Once all repairs are permanent the excavations will be filled and roads and sidewalks will be restored and paved. In addition, over the next several weeks the company will continue to have trucks and crews in the area completing work to restore the gas system to normal operation.

Customers should call National Grid at 718-643-4050 if they have any questions or additional service needs.

“We can’t thank the community enough for their cooperation and appreciate their patience as we complete the remaining service re-lights,” said Robert DeMarinis, National Grid vice president, New York Gas. “We will continue to work in and with the community on the permanent restoration effort in the coming weeks.”