News

Three food pantry sites in Glendale have received funding in the latest budget cycle.

Councilman Bob Holden’s office announced that 10 total food pantries in his district will get a share of the $95,595 total allocation.

The three sites in Glendale are: The Legacy Center Community Development Corp., Community Alliance Initiative and Sacred Heart Church, pictured above.

According to Nancy Baer, pastoral associate giochi gonfiabili at Sacred Heart, the food pantry there serves over 180 families in the Glendale area.

“This past year, the grant that we received through Councilman Holden’s efforts enabled us to serve those families consistently, each week, without turning anyone away due to lack of food on the shelves,” Baer says.

By now, you’ve heard that the city is restarting the process for possibly opening a homeless shelter at the former factory site at 78-16 Cooper Avenue, shown above.

Department of Homeless Services representatives say no final determination has been made about this particular site, and that the agency doesn’t identify locations for potential shelters.

Instead, nonprofit service providers submit a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a site, and DHS evaluates the proposal.

Either way, Glendale civic leaders know that the Cooper Avenue location is on the table again. Like four years ago, they’re figuring out how to best convince the city it’s a bad idea.

Last night, a dozen or so community board members and local leaders held a closed meeting with Councilman Bob Holden at his Middle Village district office.

Though the meeting was private, The Glendale Blog has learned that there will be a town hall meeting for the public to discuss the shelter situation.

If previous public hearings and town halls about homeless shelters in the area are any indication, Glendale won’t give in to the city without a fight.

Stay tuned for updates and information about the town hall.

While the city is optimistic about its new pilot composting program, it hasn’t been so well-received in the affected neighborhoods.

Tonight, Thurs., June 26, at 7:30 p.m. at the St. Pancras School, residents will have a chance to air their concerns at a town hall meeting with elected and Department of Sanitation officials. attendees will include Senator Joseph Addabbo, Assemblymen Andrew Hevesi and Mike Miller, and City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley. The meeting will take place in Pfeiffer Hall.

Around 2 a.m. Friday morning, Sean Trainor, who had been missing from his family since last Saturday, was found walking around Downtown Brooklyn.

Tom Sackett, who posted Sean’s photo to his twitter and facebook, said that he received a text message from a friend in the 84th Precinct early Friday bouncy castle morning saying he had found Sean.

The Trainor family has had a rough time locating Sean, who is schizophrenic and has not been able to take his medication during the time he was lost.

He first went missing last Saturday after he never came back from his daily walk. He was found around 3:45 a.m. on Thursday and brought to Woodhull Hospital in Bed-Stuy, but was lost again when the hospital discharged him, despite requests from his sister to keep him there until she could pick him up.

The hospital thought he was homeless and sent him away with a bus pass and the address of a homeless shelter in Manhattan.

“The hospital is just out of control sometimes,” Sackett said. “People are just walking in, walking in, walking in and the hospital gets backlogged.”

Sean was then missing from 4 a.m. on Thursday to when he was giochi gonfiabili found in Downtown Brooklyn around 2 a.m. on Friday.

Sackett got the text from his friend that Sean was found, and instead of being brought to a hospital, Sackett requested that Sean be brought to the 84th Precinct and detained there until his family could come pick him up.

Sackett said it appeared that Sean had not slept or showered when he was found.

The Glendale Civic Association Facebook page is filled with messages of relief from friends and community members.

“I am writing to inform everyone that Sean Trainor has been found,” wrote Colleen Cash-Klaar. “My husband and his sister Kerry Trainor are with him now. He’s on his way to get the proper help he needs. The Trainor family thanks everyone for their support and prayers. They finally have peace of mind.”

This week Community Board #5 did an about face as they formed a committee to study and investigate the issue of a Homeless Shelter on Cooper Avenue in Glendale. The Glendale Civic scivolo gonfiabile facebook page blew up with response after the Community Board January meeting January 8.

Check out the letter and press release the board sent out in August of 2012 about the homeless shelter.

A homeless shelter for 125 families is proposed to be operated by Samaritan Village is planned for 78-16 Cooper Avenue. The site is so contaminated from prior it was turned down. Those uses included a chemical company, aluminum plant and a woodworking factory which had reported to dump glue on the site on a daily basis. The site had been turned down by School Construction Authority, passed up as a YMCA and shunned for residential. But Department of Homeless Services feels inflatable tent that the site is not contaminated enough for the homeless.

For people who have not seen the site, it’s in a valley, where groundwater and other sediment from surrounding building collect.

Copy and paste this link to see a 120 page document – There are about 20 useful pages in there… Phase 1 of an environmental report for 78 – 16 Cooper Avenue

http://tinyurl.com/mxzzywp