VOL. 78, NO. 24 WOODSIDE, L.I.C., N.Y. FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012 FREE 108 th Precinct Community Council Tuesday, June 26th @ 7pm Monthly Meeting SCS, 43-31 39th Street, Sunnyside For more info, contact: Council Pres. Diane Ballek 718-784-3194 The Council is honoring Joseph Conley, Chairman of CB2. Capt. Powers will also be present along with the community affairs officers. This is the last meeting of the Council until September 2012. Sunnyside Demonstrates Love Of Country At Kiwanis Flag Day Parade & Honors Fallen Heroes Sunnyside Chamber Welcomes New President by Rob MacKay The colors red, white and blue mixed with countless banners featuring the words “Sunnyside” and “Woodside” along Greenpoint Avenue on Saturday morning during the annual Sunnyside Flag Day Parade. Carrying flags, playing musical instruments, singing patriotic songs and waiving to the crowd, about 400 marchers representing roughly 30 different entities made their way from 41 st Street to 49 th Street, where a cer- emony took place at Joe Sabba Park, which is named after a World War II veteran and community activist who helped found the parade 43 years ago. As to be expected in Western Queens, diversity — in age, ethnicity and affilia- tion — was on display the entire time. Community groups such as the Kiwanis Club of Sunnyside, the event’s organizer, took the lead. They were followed by the John V. Daniels Post 2813 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Boy Scout Troop 390, the Sunnyside Drum Corps, P.S. 199, the Flushing Cadet Squadron, the New York City Police Marching Band, the Pipes & Drums of County Armagh, the GOP Club of Sunnyside, White Castle, Billharz Plumbing and various others. Tony Lana (far left) leader of the Sunnyside Drum Corps. and organizer of the Kiwanis Flag Day Parade gives direction to Kiwanis Banner holders. SERVING SUNNYSIDE-WOODSIDE AND LONG ISLAND CITY Photos by Joe Gurrado (continued on page 4) (continued on page 8) Manny Gomez and Patricia Dorfman of SunnysideArtist.org and Pres. Swain Weiner. Tour Of Flood-Prone Areas In Woodside DEP Makes Additional Commitments to Help Mitigate Flooding Story On Page 3 Photos by Luke Adams
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SCS, 43-31 39th Street, SunnysideFor more info, contact: Council Pres. Diane Ballek 718-784-3194
The Council is honoring Joseph Conley, Chairman of CB2.Capt. Powers will also be present along with the community affairs officers.
This is the last meeting of the Council until September 2012.
Sunnyside Demonstrates Love Of Country AtKiwanis Flag Day Parade & Honors Fallen Heroes
Sunnyside ChamberWelcomes New President
by Rob MacKay
The colors red, white and blue mixedwith countless banners featuring thewords “Sunnyside” and “Woodside”along Greenpoint Avenue on Saturdaymorning during the annual SunnysideFlag Day Parade. Carrying flags, playingmusical instruments, singing patrioticsongs and waiving to the crowd, about400 marchers representing roughly 30different entities made their way from41st Street to 49th Street, where a cer-emony took place at Joe Sabba Park,which is named after a World War IIveteran and community activist whohelped found the parade 43 years ago.
As to be expected in Western Queens,diversity — in age, ethnicity and affilia-tion — was on display the entire time.Community groups such as the KiwanisClub of Sunnyside, the event’s organizer,took the lead. They were followed by theJohn V. Daniels Post 2813 of the Veteransof Foreign Wars, Boy Scout Troop 390,the Sunnyside Drum Corps, P.S. 199, theFlushing Cadet Squadron, the New YorkCity Police Marching Band, the Pipes &Drums of County Armagh, the GOP Clubof Sunnyside, White Castle, BillharzPlumbing and various others.
Tony Lana (far left) leader of the Sunnyside Drum Corps. and organizer of the Kiwanis Flag Day Parade gives direction toKiwanis Banner holders.
SERVING SUNNYSIDE-WOODSIDE AND LONG ISLAND CITY
Photos by Joe Gurrado
(continued on page 4)
(continued on page 8)
Manny Gomez and Patricia Dorfman of SunnysideArtist.org and Pres. Swain Weiner.
Tour Of Flood-ProneAreas In Woodside
DEP Makes Additional Commitments to Help Mitigate Flooding
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Dimitry Chernov, a juggler from the Big Apple Circus, dropped in on the Queens Tourism Councilmeeting at the Courtyard Marriott JFK Hotel on June 5. The Russian-born talent usually keeps sevenballs in the air at the same time, but he worked with five balls this time due to the low ceilings. Then,he posed with QTC members, who got in the spirit by donning clown noses. In its only stop in theQueens/Long Island area this year, the circus is performing in Cunningham Park in Fresh Meadowsuntil June 17. This is the farewell tour for Grandma, a world-famous clown who has been making peoplelaugh since 1975.
Tour Of Flood-ProneAreas in Woodside
DEP Makes Additional Commitments to Help Mitigate Flooding
Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens,the Bronx), Department of Envi-ronmental Protection (DEP) Com-missioner Carter Strickland,Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer,representatives from theWynwood Gardens Civic Asso-ciation, and concerned residentstoured flood-prone areas ofWoodside as part of ongoing ef-forts between the community andDEP to find ways to mitigateflooding problems in the area.
“For too long, residents herehave had to deal with floodingcaused by storms and heavy rains.It’s important we do everythingpossible to help prevent floodingand eliminate any structural vul-nerabilities that exist in the com-munity and are contributing to theseproblems,” said Rep. Joe Crowley.“I appreciate CommissionerStrickland for taking the time tojoin me, Councilman Van Bramerand community advocates to get afirst-hand look at the area and reaf-firm his commitment to work withus to make sure all the necessarysteps are taken to alleviate the riskof flooding and better protecthomes in this neighborhood.”
“I thank Congressman Crowleyfor putting this tour together withthe Department of EnvironmentalProtection,” said Council MemberVan Bramer who has worked inconjunction with Congressman
Crowley and DEP to develop en-gineering studies to find a solu-tion to the flooding issue inWoodside. “By inviting the DEPinto Woodside, we are able givelocal residents a first-hand over-view of what the underlying is-sues are. We will continue to workwith homeowners to remediatethe impact of current flooding aslong term solutions are devel-oped and implemented.”
In January, Rep. Crowley, DEPofficials and local elected officialsdiscussed flooding concerns withresidents during a town hall meet-ing. Yesterday’s tour resulted inadditional commitments from DEPon steps that will be taken to re-duce flooding in the area. Specifi-cally, the NYC DEP announced:
· The Calamus Avenue projectwill begin in 2014 and City fundsare available to ensure completionof this project. This initiative in-cludes replacing and upgradingsewers at 69th – 74th Streets andCalamus Avenue; and 69th be-tween Calamus Avenue and 48thAvenue. The Calamus Avenueproject has been on the City’s listof projects dating back to beforethe 2007 flooding and is now bud-geted for about $20 million in theCity’s budget. It should help miti-gate flooding in the community.
Sunnyside Demonstrates Love Of Country AtKiwanis Flag Day Parade & Honors Fallen Heroes
(continued from front page)
The march culminated in a ceremonyfeaturing “God Bless America” and othersongs, a rifle salute, an invocation by Rev.Joseph Jerome from All Saints Churchand speeches from elected officials andKiwanis members, such as Michael Terry,the lieutenant governor of the interna-tional volunteer organization’s QueensWest Division.
Congressman Joseph Crowley andAssemblywoman Catherine Nolan re-minded those present to be grateful forthe sacrifices made by former, currentand future U.S. soldiers. City CouncilMember Jimmy Van Bramer added thatthis parade “reminds us every year whata great country we live in.”
He added: “We are blessed to live inthis community…The sun always comesout in Sunnyside and Woodside.”
Students Nominated to Compete in the KennedyCenter’s American Collegiate Regional Theater Festival
Five LaGuardia Commu-nity College students whowere involved in the produc-tion of “Little Shop of Hor-rors” were nominated to com-pete in the Kennedy Center’sAmerican Collegiate RegionalTheater Festival, a highly com-petitive audition that will at-tract over 300 students fromcolleges and universitiesthroughout the northeast.
The five students nominatedfor Musical Theater Initiativeand/or Irene Ryan Acting Schol-arships are:
Daniel Feliz, who playedSeymour, the innocent floristwho discovers a mysteriousplant. He was nominated fortwo awards: a Musical TheaterInitiative and an Irene RyanActing Scholarship.
Jasmine Holloway, whowas cast in the role of Chif-fon, the lead singer of the four-women chorus. She was nomi-nated for a Musical TheaterInitiative.
Tiffany Scott, one of twoAudreys, Seymour s co-worker in the florist shop andlove interest. She was nomi-nated for the Irene Ryan Act-ing Scholarship.
Javon Minter, the voice of
Audrey II, the man-eating plantfrom outer space. He was nomi-nated for an Irene Ryan ActingScholarship.
Patrick Surillo, the produc-tion stage director, who receivedan Outstanding Stage Manage-ment nomination.
Two students—KamilaLipinska, who also playedAudrey; and FranciscoCarrillo, who was cast in amultitude of roles, were namedIrene Ryan Acting alternates.
“Participation in the festivalis an incredible component tothe college theater student’s ex-perience,” said Professor Ste-fanie Sertich, who submitted theCollege’s first-ever applicationto the Kennedy Center Ameri-can College Theater Festival(KCACTF). “And the fact thatour students were not only se-lected, but garnered the mostnominations, is quite an accom-plishment. I couldn’t think of abetter way to launch the newTheater major.”
Started in 1969, KCACTF isa national theater programwhose mission is to improve thequality of college theater in theU.S. Its network comprises morethan 600 academic institutionsnationwide and involves 18,000
student artists who showcasetheir work.
The nomination process be-gan last May when ProfessorSertich invited two festivaljudges to attend the productionof the comedy horror rock mu-sical. Professor Jason Ramirez,the show’s director, staged aproduction that was based onthe original Roger Corman B-movie of 1959.
To capture the feeling ofCorman’s work, Dr. Ramirez,interspersed archival black andwhite film footage from theoriginal, and staged the first actin black and white; a full colorpalette was added in the secondact. “It was very ‘Wizard ofOz,’” he said.
Professor Lisa DeSpain wasthe musical director and StevenHitt, the Managing Director ofLPAC, was the choreographer.Dr. Ramirez recruited a stellardesign staff—a lighting designerfrom the Roundabout TheaterCompany and a costume de-signer from the Ridiculous The-ater Company— and a band ofBroadway musicians.
But the 13 student cast mem-bers were the stars. “The judgesapplauded the tremendous ef-fort, commitment and talent of
our cast and crew,” said Profes-sor Sertich. “What impressedthem most was that only a fewof our students had ever per-formed on stage before.”
That included Daniel, a 19-year-old Theater major whocaptured two nominations, andJavon, a Philosophy major, whowas the voice of Audrey II, thevery hungry plant. “What Ifound interesting was thatJavon, who was not physicallyonstage, was nominated forwhat he did with his voice,”said Dr. Ramirez.
Another impressive first-time execution, he said, wasPatrick’s stage direction. “Hecalled a very intricate show,which involved a lot of lighting,sound, set and video cues,” hesaid. “It was a ridiculous amountof work for a veteran stage man-ager, and he handled it like apro.” The professor added thatwhat makes Patrick’s nomina-tion even more impressive isthat, as a rule, the students whocompete in this category comewith years of stage managingexperience.
Dr. Ramirez said that al-though the College’s theater pro-gram is in its infancy, he is notsurprised over the students’ im-
pressive work. “We are 15 min-utes from Broadway, so the levelof training we are giving thestudents is of that caliber,” hesaid. “It would not make senseto train them at a lesser level.”
The five nominees nowhave six months to practicetheir song and scene selectionsand develop their script for theregional festival auditions heldat Cape Cod Community Col-lege in January. At the five-day festival, the students alsowill participate in a wide rangeof workshops, includingplaywriting, acting, singing,design and stage management,all taught by professionals.
Selected from each of theeight regional festivals willbe the top two candidates. The16 students who reach thisstage will receive a $500scholarship and the chance tocompete in the national festi-val held in Washington, D.C.,in April 2013.
But for now, the theater pro-fessors are focusing on gettingthe students prepared for thenationals. “This is the first timethey are involved in a high-stakes audition,” said ProfessorSertich, “and we are going tomake sure they are ready.”
If you’re like most people, yougo through many complex thoughtsand emotions when choosing in-vestments. In fact, a field of studycalled “behavioral finance” is de-voted to understanding why peoplemake their investment decisions. Aspart of their work, behavioral fi-nance researchers examine “biases”that affect people’s investment se-lections. And as an individual inves-tor, you, too, can benefit from un-derstanding these biases — so thatyou can avoid them.
Here are some of the key bi-ases identified by behavioral fi-nance experts:
Overconfidence — Overconfi-dence leads investors to believe theyknow the “right times” to buy andsell investments. But if you’re con-stantly buying and selling in thebelief that you are correctly “tim-ing” the market, you maybe wrongmany times, and you may incur moreinvestment fees, expenses and taxesthan if you simply bought qualityinvestments and held them for thelong term.
Representativeness — If youmake decisions based on precon-ceived ideas or stereotypes, you maybe suffering from a bias called “rep-resentativeness.” For example, if yousee that investments from a particu-
lar sector, such as energy, have per-formed particularly well in one year,you might think these types of ve-hicles will do just as well the nextyear, so you load up on them. Yetevery sector will go through ups anddowns, so one year’s performancecannot necessarily predict the nextyear’s performance. Instead of chas-ing “hot” investments, try to build abalanced portfolio that reflects yourindividual goals, risk tolerance andtime horizon.
Anchoring — Similar to repre-sentativeness, an anchoring biasoccurs when investors place toomuch emphasis on past perfor-mance. If you own shares of XYZstock, for instance, and the stockprice hit $60 per share, you mightassume XYZ will always sell for atleast $60 a share. But if XYZ dropsto $30 per share — perhaps as aresult of a broad-based market de-cline — you might think it’s now“undervalued,” leading you to“snap up” even more shares. How-ever, XYX shares could also falldue to a change in its fundamen-tals, such as a shake-up in thecompany’s management or a de-cline in the competitiveness of itsproducts. As an informed investor,you need to work with your finan-cial advisor to determine the causes
of an investment’s decline and anyactions you may need to take inresponse.
Confirmation — If you are sub-ject to confirmation bias, you maylook for information that supportsyour reasons for choosing a particu-lar investment. This type of bias canlead to faulty decision making, be-cause you’ll end up with one-sidedinformation. In other words, youmay latch onto all the positive rea-sons for investing in something —such as a “hot stock” — but you mayoverlook the “red flags” that wouldcause you to think twice if you werebeing totally objective. To fight backagainst confirmation bias, take yourtime before making any investmentdecision — a quality investment willalmost always be just as good achoice tomorrow as it is today.
Being aware of these investmentbiases can help you make better de-cisions — and over a period of manyyears, these decisions can make adifference as you work towardachieving your financial objectives.
This article was written by Ed-ward Jones for use by your localEdward Jones Financial AdvisorVincent Renda, whose office is lo-cated at 47-01 Queens Blvd. Suite203 Sunnyside NY 11104. Phonehim at 718-361-1306.
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· Flood-prone areas in Woodside have been added to the NYC Office of Emergency Management’s (OEM) “hot spot” rankings, which will ensure when storms occur OEM willactivate teams within 12 hours to investigate and clean catch basins in the area. These areas are: 67th St & 50th Ave; 65th Place & 50th Ave; and BQE & 65th Street. (Please note arequest was made by the community to add 65th Place and 48th Avenue and DEP is currently reviewing this location).
· DEP will implement updated building codes that were issued by the Dept. of Buildings to ensure new buildings meet the highest stormwater performance standard guidelines sowater overflow is discharged into a sewer and, in turn, absorbed appropriately.
Tuesday’s Luncheon Meeting at Dazies Restaurant was the first public meetingof the Sunnyside Chamber helmed by new President Swain Weiner, after past-President Rebecca Barker had to step down due to family issues. Commercial realestate broker, Weiner was voted in by the Board of Directors last week to replaceher. President Weiner, who recently partnered with Greiner Maltz in opening up anew division, said, “It is an honor to work with so many good business leaders.”
Swain praised the work of Barker, who will share Chairman of the Board statuswith Ira Greenberg, as is customary for past presidents, and said he was proud ofhaving served the Chamber as Secretary until now. Weiner’s first guest speakerswere Peter Wing of Flushing who addressed the necessity of state legislators andlocal business working together, after he was asked by Queens Chamber ofCommerce to attend a special meeting in Albany.
During the luncheon, local eye professionals who had just met, won all theraffle prizes, in a split fundraiser for the Chamber and Sunnyside Artists. Anoriginal signed photograph worth $150 donated local artist Don Soules, and ahomemade rum cake made by Luke Adams, priceless, went to winning ticket-holders Maria Collora, Store Manager of Pearle Vision in Woodside, andOphthalmologist Debra Guthrie, MD.
Sunnyside ChamberWelcomes New President
VP Lily Gavin (Dazies), Peter Wing (1st speaker at luncheon) and Pres. Swain Weiner
Raffle winners and other Chamber members (Left to Right) Manny Gomez (Pres.SunnysideArtists.org), Frances Schmidt (Republican State Committeewoman), OnaWhitman (Sunnyside/Woodside Lions Club), Dr. Debra Guthrie (Ophthalmologist),Maria Collora (Pearl Vision) and Marie Konecko (Democratic State Committeewoman).