14 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 11, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Councilman Dromm’s mother, who founded
Queens chapter of LGBT advocacy group, dies
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @angelamatua
Mary Audrey Gallagher, a founding
member of the Queens chapter of
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and
Gays (PFLAG) and mother of Queens
Councilman Daniel Dromm, died on Jan.
4 from a major heart attack. She was 85.
Gallagher, who grew up in Long Island
City and Rego Park, graduated from St.
John’s University with a degree in education,
according to a press release sent
by Dromm’s offi ce. Aft er teaching in city
public schools, she took time off to raise
her fi ve children, including Dromm who
was elected to City Council in 2009.
Dromm credited his mother with his
win and called her his Rose Kennedy, referencing
the mother of President John F.
Kennedy.
“My beautiful mother was my Rose
Kennedy,” Dromm said. “My mother
knocked on over 1,500 doors to help me
get elected, wrote a beautiful letter to
seniors in the district and was constantly
seen campaigning with me. Everywhere
I went people always asked me about my
mother. I truly believe she was the main
reason I won.”
Th ere will be a wake held today, Jan.
8, from 3 to 8 p.m. at Conway Funeral
Home at 82-19 Northern Blvd. in Jackson
Heights. Th e Mass will be held at Blessed
Sacrament Church at 34-93 93 St. at 10
a.m. A private cremation will take place
thereaft er.
Gallagher remained dedicated to educating
young people and founded a nursery
school aft er moving to Manhasset,
Long Island, with her family. She returned
to work aft er her children grew older and
became the director of several city day care
centers.
She was instrumental in helping to
unionize the directors and aft er her second
marriage, when she moved to Port
Jeff erson, Gallagher served as the president
of the Paraprofessionals Union.
She was able to secure a 72 percent pay
raise for paraprofessionals during her
tenure.
In 1993, Gallagher began to champion
LGBT issues. Councilman Dromm,
her fi rst son, came out to his family when
he was 17 years old. But in 1992,
Gallagher came across an article
outlining her son’s support for
the Children of the Rainbow curriculum,
which aimed to teach
children to respect the variety of
races, ethnicity and sexual orientation
of their classmates.
Th e curriculum was seen as
controversial with community
leaders, several in Queens, arguing
against its implementation.
Gallagher marched in the
fi rst Lesbian and Gay Pride
Parade in Queens organized by
her son in 1993. Aft er marching
with PFLAG founder Jeanne
Manford, she decided to found
a Queens chapter and served as
the PFLAG/Queens Hospitality
Chairperson for years.
Her last job was teaching elementary
school children at P.S. 234 in the Bronx
and retired in 2002. Aft er her retirement,
she worked a substitute teacher at several
Queens schools.
“Audrey was so incredibly supportive
of her son Danny, and I will always
remember her fondly,” said PFLAG/
Queens President Anne Quashen. “She
and her Danny were very close. She
was one of his main supporters since he
came out to her at age 17. Audrey had a
wonderful way of speaking with parents
and children alike. Th ey felt that they
could really open up to her thanks to her
warmth and kindness. Audrey was oneof
a-kind, and will be sorely missed.”
State OKs Whitestone cleanup plan
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Despite protests from local community
members, a state agency has given
a developer’s revised cleanup plan at a
Whitestone site its stamp of approval.
On Dec. 29, offi cials at the state
Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) issued owners and
developers Edgestone Group LLC a certifi
cate of completion (COC) for their
remediation work at Waterpointe: an
18-acre site at 151-45 Sixth Rd. Formerly
an industrial zone, the site has been a
topic of concern in the neighborhood
for over a decade due to its toxic soil and
potential for overdevelopment.
Edgestone remediated the plot under
the supervision of the DEC through the
voluntary Brownfi eld Cleanup Program.
According to DEC’s website, the
Brownfi eld Cleanup Program encourages
the voluntary remediation of contaminated
properties, known as “brownfi elds,” so
that they can be reused and redeveloped.
A certifi cate of completion provides liability
protections and certain tax credits
to developers.
“Th e developer remediated this site
under the DEC’s strict oversight to ensure
the cleanup is protective of public health
and the environment,” an agency spokesperson
said. “Th e developer must now
ensure remedial controls remain in place
in accordance with the approved remedy.”
Th e cleanup project was assumed by
developers to make way for the construction
of 52 detached, single-family homes
on the property. Required remedial controls
include a sub-slab depressurization
system (SSD) installed in each new building
erected on the lot, which will read for
any harmful active vapors released into
the air, and the creation of a homeowners
association to oversee management
obligations.
In September, DEC announced that
it had modifi ed the cleanup agreement
with developers. Aft er an inspection,
DEC determined the site was slated to
achieve a “Track 4" cleanup instead of
the initially agreed upon and more intensive
“Track 2 residential cleanup.” Th e
Track 4 cleanup, while normally part of
commercial development projects, can
be used for restricted residential use
under particular DEC guidelines, the
agency spokesperson said.
Th e announcement was met with resistance
from residents. In November,
Whitestone locals and state Senator Tony
Avella met at the site for a press conference,
claiming the community was
“kept in the dark” about the developments.
Board members at Community
Board 7’s December general meeting
raised concerns about the harmful toxins
left behind. Th ey called for the New
York State Inspector General to pursue
an investigation into why work contrary
to the original Brownfi eld condition was
authorized by DEC.
Community Board 7 member Joe
Sweeney, who has chaired the board’s
committee overseeing the Waterpointe
project for about eight years, told QNS
the site is still contaminated, as far as the
board is concerned. Members, he continued,
are “at a loss” as to why DEC issued
the certifi cate for the Track 4 work,
which is not as stringent.
“Th e board’s worked very diligently
to make sure that that site is viable
for people in the future,” Sweeney said.
“Th e safety factors relating to contamination
under this track are not as stringent.
We’re hoping that the electeds and
the New York State Inspector General’s
offi ce investigate the matter.”
Residents and local leaders are slated
to discuss the latest Waterpointe property
development plans at the We Love
Whitestone Civic meeting on Jan. 17
at 7:30 p.m. at the Holy Cross Greek
Orthodox Church.
Queens had
more fatal ODs
than murders
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
Fitting a citywide trend, major crimes
substantially fell across Queens in 2017,
but District Attorney Richard A. Brown
is concerned about the escalating opioid
crisis in the borough.
Just 50 murders occurred in Queens
last year, the second-lowest number
since the Kennedy administration,
Brown said in his Jan. 9 report.
However, the borough saw 172 suspected
fatal drug overdoses — nearly a third
of which involved fentanyl.
Th e synthetic drug, when mixed with
heroin, results in “an opioid painkiller
30 to 50 times more potent than heroin,”
according to Brown. Use of the
deadly cocktail has risen nationwide,
and Brown’s offi ce has stepped up its
eff orts to combat the growing epidemic
in Queens.
Brown said that prosecutors are now
tracking individuals who sell drugs
containing fentanyl, and the eff orts led
to one noteworthy pending criminal
cases. A suspected drug dealer, Bernard
Lewis of Astoria, was arrested in July
on charges that he knowingly sold fentanyl
laced narcotics to individuals.
“My offi ce commenced an investigation
in response to two non-fatal
overdoses attributed to the defendant,”
Brown said. “He was charged
with the crime of reckless endangerment,
among other charges, for knowingly
selling drugs laced with fentanyl
in order to send a strong message to the
community and drug traffi ckers alike
that we are taking the city’s skyrocketing
fentanyl-related overdose epidemic
with the utmost seriousness.”
Court records indicate that Lewis
remains in jail without bail; he is due
back in court on Jan. 31.
Along with increasing investigative
and prosecutorial eff orts, Brown’s offi ce
is also taking other steps toward stemming
the crisis, according to a spokesperson.
Th e offi ce has an active alternative
sentencing program for misdemeanor
drug off enders that links them to drug
treatment and rehabilitation programs
in lieu of prison sentences.
Th e opioid crisis is the latest challenge
facing Brown as he enters his
27th year as Queens’ chief prosecutor.
Since being appointed to the job in
1991, overall crime has dropped by 82
percent. Major crimes in 2017 dropped
by 7.9 percent, including an 18 percent
downturn in auto crimes, a 4.8 percent
drop in robberies and a 3.1 percent
decline in felony assaults.
Brown’s offi ce handled more than
57,000 cases in 2017, and he boasted
that his team maintains “the best
arrest-to-arraignment time in the city,
and has the best arrest-to-sworn complaint
time, meaning that we are able
to get our police offi cers back on the
streets faster than any other borough.”
Photo courtesy of Daniel Dromm
Mary Audrey Gallagher, son of Councilman Daniel Dromm,
died on Jan. 4.