Flushing Nurses Call Off Strike Hospital Execs Reach Plans for Totten BIG BLUE BASH Tentative Deal with by RICH BOCKMANN Members of Union
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Feb. 9-15, 2012 Your Neighborhood - Your News® FREE THE NEWSPAPER OF WHITESTONE & COLLEGE POINT Queens tells task force redistricting won’t fl y Page 4 QGuide Page 25 CB 7 to hear women’s center Flushing nurses call off strike Hospital execs reach plans for Totten BIG BLUE BASH tentative deal with BY RICH BOCKMANN members of union The Center for the Women of New York has reached an impor- BY JOE ANUTA tant milestone in its efforts to se- cure a home in Fort Totten Park, The nurses at Flushing Hos- according to founder and Chair- pital have decided not to strike woman Ann Jawin. after reaching a tentative agree- Jawin said city Parks De- ment with the hospital’s manage- partment Commissioner Adrian ment this week. Benepe and Community Board The strike that was sched- 7’s Parks Committee recently ap- uled for Feb. 7 was called off, and proved the center’s plans to reno- the 420 registered nurses instead vate the building at 207 Totten were set to consider a new con- Ave. tract between the New York State If the approval process goes Nurses Association and the hospi- according to plan, she said, the tal, which is part of the MediSys center will be able to move into its network. new home within a year’s time. “A strike is a last resort,” “The new building will be said Michelle Green, a labor rep- a wonderful resource for all the resentative. “We were not trying women in the whole state, but to have a strike, we were trying particularly those in the metro New York Giants fans, including John Ciglaor (front c.) and Jimmy Farnochi (front r.), owner of The End Zone, cheer to achieve a deal that is fair to the area,” she said. nurses and fair to the employer, on their team at The End Zone in Whitestone as G-Men took on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, which CB 7 will discuss the cen- and that is what we believe we the Giants won 21-17. Photo by Maria Lopez ter’s plans at its monthly meeting got.” Continued on Page 18 Continued on Page 18 A CNG Publication • Vol. 22, No. 6 60 total pages FREE LAMINATES CARPET – 3 Rooms Any Room SHOP $ $ FREE PADDING! FREE INSTALLATION! 699 AT 1-800-RUGS-R-US 399(up to 288 sq ft) HOME 1-800 -784-7787 www.1800RugsRUs.net (up to 108 sq ft) 2 WT Northern Blvd. Staples closes Con Ed crew thwarts Flushing BID says shuttering not indicative of downtown economy Bayside robbery try BY RICH BOCKMANN in-between tasks. The BY JOE ANUTA street was closed off and Four Con Edison hard the area was very well lit,” . 9-15, 2012 EB The Staples store at hats proved themselves to said McDowell, a Rockaway , F Northern and Parsons bou- be heroes two weeks ago Beach resident. EDGER levards in Flushing closed when they rescued a wom- “We heard a scream L for good Saturday , adding an who was being attacked and me and Anthony were IMES T another vacant retail space in Bayside. the first ones to run toward on the street. The day started rou- it, with Mike and John A spokeswoman from tinely for foreman John right behind us,” said San- the international office Kane and his crew of me- teramo, who lives on Long supply store said the clo- chanics John McDowell Island. sure was strictly a business and Michael Santeramo The men said that decision. and backhoe operator An- when they arrived, they “We always evaluate thony Farmighetti. saw a woman in her 20s our store performance to The four men, who with grocery bags thrown ensure we’re operating the have more than 40 years of about who had just been hit business in the best way,” experience with the com- in her lip and a black man said Karen Pevenstein said pany among them, arrived about 6 feet tall wearing a in a statement. to repair a gas leak Jan. 25 blue bandana around his The store first opened at the corner of 201st Street face, running away. in 2006 and employed and 42nd Avenue around They said they chased 25people, all of whom were 12:30 p.m., and worked him for about 60 feet. offered a transfer to work at throughout the day, tearing “We all chased him, other Staples locations, ac- up the street and repairing and when we got close I cording to Pevenstein. the leak. guess he knew he was go- The retailer has a lo- It was at about 8 p.m., ing to get caught,” said Mc- cation in College Point and with the bright lights of Dowell. Bayside, although Peven- their equipment lighting The suspect then stein did not specify where up their worksite, that they turned around, pointed a the employees were offered heard a woman’s scream gun at the crew and threat- a transfer. The Staples building on Northern Boulevard near Parsons Boulevard is now for rent after it closed coming from about 20 feet ened to shoot them before She also pointed out Saturday. Photo by Joe Anuta away. running off. that the store closing did “At the time we were Continued on Page 18 not mean Staples was in fi- NASDAQ. & Development, which is “I can’t think of any nancial trouble. Just before the reces- also hawking another large correlation between this “This store closing is sion, Staples stock was sell- property down the street. and the development of not indicative of Staples’ ing for about $25 per share L & L Supermarket downtown Flushing,” he overall business nor part of before it fell to $14.44 per sits on a slightly smaller, said. “Large chain stores a major restructuring pro- share in October 2008. Af- 22,823-square-foot lot, can survive downtown.” gram,” she said. “We plan ter rallying back to $25.76 about half the size of a foot- Yu cited Best Buy, to open additional stores per share about two years ball field, and is also up for Macy’s, Applebee’s and in the U.S. and Canada this ago, it is back down to near sale. Bob’s Discount Furniture year.” recession levels in the $15 But Dian Yu, execu- in Sky View Center on Col- Staples earned about range . tive director of the Flush- lege Point Boulevard as ex- $6.6 billion in 2010, up just The soon-to-be vacant ing Business Improvement amples. a few million from the year store front, which sits on District, said the two lots before, but the retailer’s a 26,000-square-foot lot, is for sale have more to do Reach reporter Joe stock has failed to come being sold by the Manhat- with the economy than the Anuta by e-mail at januta@ Con Edison mechanics say they heard a scream while working to back from the 2008 reces- tan-based real estate com- downtown area’s economic cnglocal.com or by phone at repair a gas leak in Bayside and ran toward the sound. sion, according to data from pany Midwood Investment viability. 718-260-4566. 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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Whitestone Times C/O News Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. 41-02 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361 3 Mandingo honored for lifetime as community crusader WT Bayside Historical Society holds Black History Month tribute for vibrant activist, Renaissance man T IMES BY JOE ANUTA seen riding his trusty mo- well-known crusades, he tertainment, but Sunday L torized cart through the discovered that a Flushing Tshaka serenaded the EDGER Activist Mandingo neighborhood. playground was actually roughly 100 people gath- , F Tshaka has probably “The flesh is not what a 19th-century cemetery ered in the Fort Totten Offi- EB earned his weight in proc- it was,” he said at the cere- housing predominately cers’ Club with his velvety . 9-15, 2012 lamations and awards over mony. “But once I start talk- African and native Ameri- timbre. the years, but the Bayside ing, my spirit is revived.” cans. Mandingo, whose pipes Historical Society, which Tshaka is not shy He got the city to re- were heard on Broadway honored him for Black His- about talking. His voice name the playground the and as a member of the Ink tory Month, thinks he is has played a central role in Olde Towne of Flushing Spots in his heyday, stood worth every ounce.