My Very Dear Queens Villagers,

               With the colder months about to arrive for their season, let's all make the necessary preparations in our homes and our lives so that we will be warm, safe, and comfortable when winter finally gets here.

               I am reminding Queens Villagers that it is your responsibility to clean up to 18 inches from the curb of your property.  Street catch basins should also be kept clean as they allow water to run off and prevent flooding.  You will be doing your community a great service by removing leaves and other debris that clog the gratings of catch basins and placing the refuse in your garbage can or bag.  Your efforts will help to eliminate flooding and improve our quality of life.

               I am sad to report that illegal housing conversions are being done throughout Queens Village.  Real estate brokers have a duty and a responsibility in helping to curb this blight on our community.  They must educate and enlighten prospective home buyers that it is illegal to rent a basement apartment to augment their mortgage when zoning laws forbid it.  Homeowners who illegally convert their homes into apartments or rent to multiple families must be reported and brought to justice.  These dwellings diminish our quality of life by creating a strain on municipal services and are often built with complete disregard for building and fire codes, resulting in the tragic loss of life.  Help is on the way, but we hope that it will be enough to stop the perpetrators in their tracks.  Prosecuting them for unreported income and ensuring that they pay their fines should be a great deterrent.  (Please refer to article on illegal housing conversions on the news page.)  If you know of any illegal housing conversions in our community, please report it to us at our monthly meetings or to our elected officials who can be found in the advertising pages of our Newsletter.

               Our heartfelt sympathy is extended to Jim and Mary Mooney on the recent death of Mary's mother, Ellen McMahan.  She was 92.  Jim is Treasurer of our civic association and Mary an active member.

               Congratulations to Linda and Larry Holcomb on the birth of their beautiful baby girl on Friday, September 24, their fourth child.  Grace Ann weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces.  Reverend Holcomb is our Corresponding Secretary.

               We will have two guest speakers at this month's meeting:  Queens Borough President Claire Shulman and Melinda Katz, liaison between the Community Boards and the Queens Borough President.  It was really nice to see so many members and guests at last month's meeting.  I am asking you to return on October 19, to give Mrs. Shulman a "special Queens Village welcome."  And bring along a friend or neighbor.

               I'll see you at our October 19 meeting.

                                                                                 Best wishes to all, 

THANKS A HEAP!

Our newest members are J. Gordon (91 Road), Colee and Kathleen Hassett (221 Place), John Macko Jr. (216 Street) and Ruth Sandlin (212 Place).  Welcome aboard.  If you have been thinking about joining us, you can do so at our regular monthly meetings or by using the membership application form in this Newsletter.  We need you to increase our strength and our clout as we fight for programs and City services to maintain and improve our quality of life.

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          Charles Fraser, a Buildings Department Assistant Commissioner for Enforcement, will lead an aggressive, citywide crackdown on building code violations.  The focus of the crackdown will be on illegal housing conversions in Queens.  Fraser heads a nine member Special Enforcement Unit that will utilize every single tactic that's legal to bring errant offenders to justice and collect fines.  Tank accounts will be frozen and automobiles seized.  The enforcement unit will work with other government agencies that include Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the police and district attorneys, and probation officers.  Measures will also include warrants to get admission to buildings, criminal summonses, civil lawsuits, and tracking sales of property.

          Fraser outlined his strategies recently at Queens Borough Hall to members of a borough wide Illegal Conversion ask Force established by Queens Borough President Claire Shulman in 1997 in response to a growing number of complaints from across Queens.  Civic groups, community boards, elected officials and City agencies are represented on the body.  Shulman calls Fraser's tools impressive and now expects that a lot of these problems will be solved and that some of the perpetrators who thumb their noses at government will realize they can no longer get away with it.

          The 105th Police Precinct, which covers the communities of Bellerose, Cambria
Heights, Floral Park, Glen Oaks, Laurelton, New Hyde Park, Rosedale, Springfield
Gardens, and Queens Village, reports that overall crime dropped by nearly 16 percent for the first nine months of the year. However, the number of murders more than doubled between January and September 26, rising from four to nine during the same period last year. Also increasing when compared to the sane period last year were felony assaults, 276 to 101 (9 percent), and grand larceny, 316 to 326 (3.2 percent. Decreasing during the first nine months of 1999 were rape, 33 to 26 (21.4 percent), robbery, 379 to 344 (9.2 percent), burglary, 641 to 539 (15.9 percent), and grand larceny auto, 1,057 to 738 (30.2 percent), the greatest decline of the seven crime categories measured.

          You can obtain a wealth of information about police activities in our community
and be given the opportunity to express your concerns and complaints by attending    the next meeting of the 105th Police Precinct Community Council on Wednesday, October 27, in the precinct located at 92-08 222nd Street, in Queens Village, beginning at 8:00 P.M.

          Our Queens Village Library Branch, located at 94-11 217th Street, is now open on Sunday from 12:00 P. M. to 5:00 P. M.   Other hours of operation are as follows:  Monday, 10:00 A. M. to 8:00 P. M.;   Tuesday, 1:00 P. M. to 6:00 P. M.;  Wednesday, 10:00 A. M. to 8:00 P. M.;  Thursday, 10:00 A. M. to 6:00 P. M.;   Friday 10:00 A. M. to 6:00 P. M.;    and Saturday, 10:00 A. M. to 5:00 P. M. Our library is very user-friendly.   The telephone number is (718) 776-6800.

          Our sympathy is extended to the family of George B. Stadtmuller.   Mr. Stadtmuller moved here when he married Dorothy Keller of  Queens Village in 1944.   Mr. and Mrs. Stadtmuller owned and operated a stationery store on Jamaica Avenue, between 212th Street and Hollis Court Boulevard for 14 years.  Besides his wife, Dorothy, he leaves behind a daughter, Patricia, and a son Peter, a third generation resident of Queens Village.  The Stadtmullers are long standing members of the Queens Village Civic Association.

          Another long time resident and business woman of Queens Village has passed away.  Gertrude "Trudi" Tiedemann came to this country from her native Germany when she was just 16.  She and her husband had an old fashioned ice-cream parlor on the corner of 213th Street and Jamaica Avenue, where they made their own home made ice-cream and candy.  Other long time residents still savor the memory of those delectable treats.