MTA Police are rolling in dough

From the NY Post:

Nearly nine out of 10 MTA police officers who patrol the Staten Island Railway, Long Island Railroad and Metro-North rake in more than $100,000 a year, according to MTA salary data obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request.

The commuter-rail cops averaged $27,000 in annual overtime and more than $127,000 in total pay last year. More than 86 percent took in $100,000 or more in total earnings, and 11 cops topped $200,000.

The biggest cheese of all — bagging an eye-popping $234,641.84 last year — was Brian Sullivan, a Metro-North detective sergeant who joined the force in July 1992.

He took home $76,000 in overtime and almost $158,000 in base pay, which, in a 40-hour work week, would mean he was paid $75.96 an hour. But according to the MTA, his hourly pay rate in 2012 was only $53.21 an hour. Sullivan’s total earnings could buy more than 93,800 MetroCard rides, 11,732 round-trip tickets from Grand Central Station to New Rochelle, or eight MTA police cars.

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The mother of all Fedders?

Forgotten New York found "The Perfect Fedders" in Corona:

I was stopped on the railroad on Tuesday right in front of what may be the most iconic, emblematic Fedders building I’ve seen in Queens, on 44th Avenue in Corona facing the LIRR embankment.

It’s all here… the concrete lawn with sport utility vehicle parking, the Fedders AC cutouts, the meters front and center, the bland blond brick, the rusted fire escapes. The only nod to any design at all is a little flourish in the brickwork. Bars on the windows just add to the whole package.

We call this look "prison moderne".

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Sunnysiders hoping for more restful nights

From WPIX:

Learning to live with noise is part of life in the city.

But some neighbors got out their camerasafter the noise kept them up late at night along the MTA’s East Side Access project in Sunnyside.

Hear what they heard in the video story.

The MTA got their message.

Yes, they'll "see what they can do." They just might as well buy some earplugs.

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LIRR considering re-opening Elmhurst Station

From CBS New York:

The Long Island Rail Road’s Elmhurst station closed in 1985, when ridership was measured in the dozens, but the railroad thinks there might be a reason to reopen it.

LIRR President Helena Williams said there’s been early enthusiasm for the project, which would cost an estimated $30 million, but they want that yearning down in black and white.

So surveys will arrive in the neighborhood mailboxes in early July. It will be in English, Spanish, and Mandarin.

“We need evidence that there’s true ridership,” Williams said

Williams said adding a new station to the Port Washington Line would not slow service, especially with improvements being made already.

Rep. Grace Meng said it’s a good fit for a vibrant neighborhood.

Rep. Joe Crowley joined Meng, saying it could be a boost to quality of life.

Not only that, think of the scads more development we can encourage!

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Ozone Park soil contamination to be removed

From the Queens Chronicle:

Work started this week on the controversial project to remove toxic chemicals from a former industrial site in Ozone Park.

The work along 100th Street between 101st and 103rd avenues will clean eight bays under the former Ozone Park LIRR station that were once used for storage by Ozone Industries, an aircraft parts manufacturer that operated out of an adjacent factory until the late 1990s.

Ozone Industries placed drums in the ground below the bays that contained a chemical called trichloroethylene, or TCE, a substance linked to some forms of cancer and problems of the central nervous system. The chemical is used in aircraft manufacturing.

For the past decade, End Zone, the successor company to Ozone Industries, has been working with the city and the state to remediate TCE contamination. The eight bays where the work will be done has been labeled a state Superfund site.

John Durnin, a representative from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, spoke to Community Board 9 about the status of the project that had been scheduled to begin last month. Durnin did not say what caused the delay, but did detail what kind of work will be done.

He said the concrete floor of the bays will be removed and the soil will be excavated.

“The contamination is in the soil,” Durnin explained. “It will be trucked away in sealed trucks.”

Air monitors will be placed around the site and workers will be assigned to shifts to make sure no dangerous level of the chemical is recorded.

“The work is going to be done inside the closed bays,” Durnin said. “There will be no outside work done. The contaminated soil will not be exposed.”

Some of the contamination will be vented into the air, but only trace amounts that the DEC says is not dangerous.

Of course not.

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