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Bronx community boards to meet

Community boards are the little City Halls of the city, dealing with local issues involving city agencies, and serving an advisory role in zoning and other land-use issues.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 1 (Melrose, Mott Haven) meets at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at CB1 Office, 3024 Third Ave. Call (718) 585-7117.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 4 (Highbridge, Mount Eden and Concourse) meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 24, at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Murray Cohen Auditorium, 1650 Grand Concourse. Call (718) 299-0800.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 5 (Bathgate, Morris Heights, Fordham and Mount Hope) meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, at South Bronx Job Corps - Auditorium, 1771 Andrews Ave. Call (718) 364-2030.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 7 (Norwood, Jerome Park, Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights) meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 17, at the Botanical Gardens, Mosholu Gate Entrance, Visitors Center Café, E. 200th St. and Kazimiroff Blvd. Call (718) 933-5650.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 9 (Soundview, Clasons Point, Parkchester, Bruckner and Harding Park) meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at CB9 Office, 1967 Turnbull Ave. Call (718) 823-3034.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 10 (Throgs Neck, City Island, Pelham Bay, Co-op City, Zerega, Westchester Square, Country Club and Edgewater) meets at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at Middletown Senior Center, 3035 Middletown Road. Call (718) 892-1161.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 11 (Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Laconia and Van Nest) meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at 1200 Van Nest Avenue, Lubin Hall, Mazur Building. Call (718) 892-6262.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 12 (Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Woodlawn, Eastchester and Baychester) meets at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at CB12 office, 4101 White Plains Road. Call (718) 881-4455.

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Bronx community boards set their meetings 

Community Boards are the little City Halls of the city, dealing with local issues involving city agencies, and serving an advisory role in zoning and other land-use issues.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 1 (Melrose, Mott Haven) meets at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 29, at CB1 Office, 3024 Third Ave. Call (718) 585-7117.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 4 (Highbridge, Mount Eden and Concourse) meets at 6p.m., Tuesday, June 24, at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Murray Cohen Auditorium, 1650 Grand Concourse. Call (718) 299-0800.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 5 (Morris Heights, Fordham, Bathgate and Mount Hope) meets at 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 25, at South Bronx Job Corps - Auditorium, 1771 Andrews Ave. Call (718) 364-2030.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 9 (Soundview, Clasons Point, Parkchester, Bruckner and Harding Park) meets at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 19, at CB9 Office, 1967 Turnbull Ave. Call (718) 823-3034.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 10 (Throgs Neck, City Island, Pelham Bay, Co-op City, Zerega, Westchester Square, Country Club and Edgewater) meets at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, June 19, at Middletown Senior Center, 3035 Middletown Road. Call (718) 892-1161.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 12 (Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Woodlawn Eastchester and Baychester) meets at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, June 26, at CB12 office, 4101 White Plains Road. Call (718) 881-4455.

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Soldier’s Ploy Backfires in Bid to Quit War

The door to the doughnut shop swung open. For a moment, the tall young man, every bit a soldier in his bearing, stood with the windy rain of Friday afternoon at his back. A wave of coffee and doughnut humidity slapped him in the face.

His eyes swept across the shop. Then he spotted the older man seated at a table over a cup of decaf. Their eyes locked. The prodigal son had come home. The father rose. They hugged, with lots of thumping on the back instead of words.

Nearly two years ago, Jonathan Aponte left the Bronx for Iraq, a private with the First Cavalry of the United States Army.

And on Friday, he was, at long last, home for keeps — but not from the war. He was just back from an eight-month stay on Rikers Island.

Mr. Aponte went to jail because he arranged to get himself shot in the leg on a Bronx street corner in a staged robbery, hoping for an injury that would be just bad enough to keep him from going back to Iraq. That part worked. But it was just one act in a Bronx soap opera that in many respects seemed to be a scaled-down version of the delusional ambitions of the Iraq war itself.

Home on leave for 10 days last year, Mr. Aponte entered into a marriage of extremely short duration with a young woman. The new bride either volunteered or was assigned to hire a gunman to shoot her new husband, carefully. She negotiated via text messages. Right after Mr. Aponte arrived in the hospital with his wounded leg and flimsy yarn about a mysterious assailant, the scheme collapsed, followed immediately by the marriage.

On Friday, in a doughnut shop on West Burnside in the Bronx, he retraced his steps.

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In Bleak Days for Builders, Lessons in Saving Your Life

 At a time of high anxiety, a primer on protection.

MANUEL ARRANGO, a construction mechanic, works high above the pavement, toiling over masonry, brickwork, and waterproofing. On Monday night, at a training session for scaffold workers held in a church in Westchester Square in the northeast Bronx, Mr. Arrango also did a turn — literally — as a fashion model.

A burly man who this evening was wearing a denim jacket with a gold chain over his beige T-shirt, he slipped his sneakers through the leg loops of a blue safety harness, then pulled the shoulder straps over his broad shoulders. After a few adjustments were made, he strutted and pivoted in the aisle of the church as though he were on a catwalk in Milan. From the audience came cheers and hoots and — what would you expect from a roomful of construction workers? — a provocative whistle.

Despite the light-heartedness of Mr. Arrango’s performance, the overall mood at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church that evening was not jovial. Monday was the first day of Construction Safety Week, an annual campaign held by the city’s Department of Buildings, and this year’s program came at a grim time for the construction industry.

In recent months, a rash of fatal construction accidents have occurred in the city, including the crane collapse that killed seven people on East 51st Street on March 15. On April 22, Patricia Lancaster resigned as buildings commissioner under a cloud of controversy. Read more..

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Bronx’s Westchester Square Medical Center Joins NY Presbyterian System

By the end of June, New York Westchester Square Medical Center in The Bronx was supposed to officially close it’s doors for good. The hospital is one of four throughout the city still slated for closure based on recommendations from a panel known as the Berger commission which tried to cut healthcare costs throughout the state.

But Friday, the hospital officially announced that it will stop operating on its own and will become part of the New York Presbyterian Healthcare System.

To show their appreciation, elected leaders who helped broker the deal with state health officials were given signed lab coats from hospital staff.

“I really believe if at all possible this is going to be even better,” said Bronx Democratic State Senator Jeffrey Klein. “You are going to have a great healthcare institution, world-renowned like New York Presbyterian taking over. It still is going to be a community hospital. Still going to maintain community mission of providing quality of care and they will have sort of a big brother watching over them.”

Under the takeover plan, members of the hospital board and elected officials claim all services will remain intact.

“It is basically a bail-out,” said Dr. Rudolph Nisi, Westchester Square’s Chairman of the Board. “The hospital will continue to be an acute care hospital as it has always been with the addition of services with asthma clinics, perhaps, or diabetes clinics.”

While senior staff and Senator Klein remain optimistic that services will continue and be increased, New York Presbyterian said the future of the hospital’s services remains uncertain.

“Part of the process we need to go through is not just to be able to say this makes the most sense in our view,” said Wayne Osten, director of NY Presbyterian Healthcare. “There are other partners and individuals that need to work with us, including the health department, including the governor’s office, including the staff here and the staff at New York Presbyterian.”

The takeover process will also involve bailing Westchester Square out of bankruptcy. But current hospital officials and New York Presbyterian maintain there will be no disruption of services while those issues are being worked out. Read more..

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