Letters to the editor

Subway construction

To The Editor:
Thanks for your comprehensive story on how the Second Ave. subway will affect the Downtown area (news article, June 24 – 30, 2003,“Sacrifices for Second Ave. subway”). Nowhere else could we get such details as it pertains to us. I wonder if you have a timeline you could share. Could you please advise as to what year the construction is scheduled to arrive Downtown?

Patricia Ryan

Editor’s Note: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to begin construction on the Second Ave. subway at the end of 2004, but they have not decided when they will begin in Lower Manhattan.

It’s a B.P.C. team

To The Editor:
I was very pleased and flattered by Jane Flanagan’s article on our Battery Park City CERT program (news article, June 24 – 30, 2003, “Former guardsman to lead B.P.C. emergency team”). It has already produced a number of calls from volunteers interested in joining.

However, I would like to point out that while I am “featured” in the story, we have a number of people who are working together, as a team, to organize the CERT volunteers in Battery Park City: Anthony Notaro, Joan Cappellano, Sudhir Jain, and Rosalie Joseph have all devoted time and effort to get us started.

In fact, while the CERT idea was germinating in my mind, Rosalie Joseph had already begun efforts to get it underway, and when I saw her name associated with it, I called to jump on the bandwagon.

We all agree on one thing: It is long overdue and we hope to have a team that can, indeed, respond in a meaningful way for any future contingencies in our community.

In addition, I recently retired as a colonel in the N.Y. (State) Guard, not the National Guard. The New York Guard is one of the “best kept secrets” in the state. By 2 p.m. on 9/11 we had already mobilized 300 N.Y. Guard Soldiers, even before the National Guard was in motion. Prior to my N.Y. Guard services, most of my career was in the “federal” forces, i.e. the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserves where I served more than 20 years.

Sidney Baumgarten