Daily News from New York, New York • 244

DAILY NEWS Monday, July 3, 1989 IBIiir getaoDg mi XQ 3 5-year, $203M program takes it into 21st century 4 By JAMES PETERS 1 Zti Darfy News Staff wntef mm 43 1 i i IF I. i fill in if cording to Bruce Gombos, the Health and Hospitals Corporation executive overseeing the project Inadequate plant He said that the physical plant, including elevators, and the electrical and cooling systems, are inadequate to meet future demands. Patient housing and related facilities are also outdated and do not meet present state health standards, he said. Also, the hospital's more than 90 out-patient clinics, which serve approximately 400.000 people annually, are scattered throughout the hospital complex and will be coordinated and re-located. The hospital was built in the late 1950s.

Gombos said during a review of the building that plans are for the hospital's former laundry to be converted into a medical library to be completed next October. Laundry is now being done outside. Work on a new surgical building, which also will house centralized heating and cooling equipment and a A. Elmhurst Hospital Center will officially kick off its $203 million, five-year modernization program with a groundbreaking ceremony on July 15. Mayor Koch and Health and Hospitals Corporate President Jo Ivey Boufford will officiate at the ceremonies scheduled for 11 a m.

When the massive rehabilitation is completed some time in 1994. the 618-bed public hospital-the first city-run medical institution to undergo such a massive face lift in recent times be ready to usher in the century with the latest in the-art facilities an medical technology. The city is up the money for the project, which calls for tlu obstruction of 235.000 square feet of new space and the renovation of more than 400.000 square feet of existing space. There are many reasons why the hospital, the only public health facility serving heavily populated western Queens, should be rebuilt, ac ARTISTS RENDERING of modernized Emhurst Hospital Center. new Radiology Department, should be started by the fall as well.

It will be built on a portion of the parking lot adjacent to the Emergency Room. Private garage Construction of a multi-tiered parking garage for 550 cars, and a proposed three-story ambulatory-care building to house the hospital's out-patient clinics, also Rleiv director to usher in new age should be in progress. Plans for the proposed privately operated garage must undergo the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. A short city street (78th St between 41st Ave. and Broadway) will be have to be de-mapped to accommodate construction.

In addition, workmen will tackle the biggest proposed change in the hospital structure: Extending the front of the Wing of the main building on Broadway to create an additional 3,000 square feet of space on each of the wing's upper five floors. Plans also call for similar construction on the opposite side, or A Wing, but that work will not begin until the Wing is finished, Gombos said. The changes will bring the hospital into conformity with state health codes governing the size of patients rooms. The new space on the upper five floors of each wing will house clusters of private and semi-private patients' rooms around individual nursing stations. Each room will have its own bathing and toilet facilities.

At present, patients are placed in units of up to six beds with no private toilets or bathing facilities. i No service break Steps have been taken to ensure that the ongoing construction work will not interfere with the hospital's daily operation, Gombos said. "The hospital will be operating at full capacity," Gombos said, adding that the planning for this mammoth project began in 1983. The hospital's top four floors, which house pediatrics, obstetrics, and mental hygiene patients, will not be touched until the A Wing construction is completed some time in 1993. Additional plans call for the hospital to temporarily take over about 50 of a park located directly across the street from the hospital between Broadway and Wood-side Ave.

Gombos said the park space will be used as interim parking for hospital staff for. approximately 18 months. At the end of that period, the; Parks Department will begin: an extensive renovation of the park and return it to pub- lie use. f' ij 1 that exists among the medical, nursing administrative and support staffs." Velez has held a number of positions at Elmhurst, including associate executive director for ambulatory care; and before being named interim director this year, he was the hospital's chief operating officer, overseeing its day-today operations. Velez also spent four years with the hospital's parent, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, as vice president for community relations.

In addition, he has been an administrator and consultant for a private health group. Peter Velez has been named the new executive director of Elmhurst Hospital Center, it was announced yesterday. Velez, who took over as the hospital's temporary director earlier this year when former Executive Director Alan Channing was named to a similar post at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, will oversee the city-run hospital's five-year, $200 million modernization plan. "I hope to provide continuity at the hospital." Velez said. to reenforce the positive working relationship PetrVfaz ey'lll rein odb (fioUi's ffnreoiDite PS By TONY MARCANO the "rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air" bit Gotti was sitting in the Bergin Fish and Hunt Club on 101st Ave.

as the crowd chanted, "We want the (fire) works!" prompting son-of-don John Jr. to lead a team of teenagers to 101st where they dumped cases of fireworks on the street soaked them with lighter fluid, and set them ablaze. The embarrassed cops stood off to the side, watching the impromptu bonfire and fireworks. Although no permits were issued last year to close off the street or to touch off the fireworks, no summonses were issued either, and no arrests were made. This year, a group calling itself mit Activity Office.

"The Community Board passed along the application on May 16," Gounardes said. "The Police Department didn't object and we sent a permit" The police said they plan to keep an eye on the block party, but there are no plans to deploy a platoon of blue-coated party poopers. "We're going to try to stop any fireworks to the best of our ability," said Inspector Richard Mayr-onne, a police spokesman. "But we're not going out there as our primary mission on the Fourth of July. We don't want to rain on anyone's parade." Gotti's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, did not return calls for comment the Ozone Park 98th to 99th Street Business Group filed a request with the city to close off the one block from 98th to 99th for an 8:30 a.m.-to-ll p.m.

block party. The request was granted. All in the vicinanza The application was filed with the city by Paul Di Fusco who, coincidental, happens to live a few blocks from Gotti in Howard Beach. Di Fusco could not be reached for comment Although cops are wary of a possible repeat of last year's pyro-technical antics, they made no ef-fort to block Di Fusco's application, according to Lee Gounardes of the city's Street Per- Dawy Nes Star Wphw There's going to be a Fourth of July bash on 101st Ave. in Ozone Park tomorrow complete with music, food, beer, and rides the works.

But no fireworks. At least that's what the Police Department says. And they hope John Gotti is listening. Last year, the Dapper Don threw his annual and free Independence Day blow-out for the neighborhood, a tradition that will mark its 19th year tomorrow. Last year's bash resulted in a blow-up when a dozen or so cops tried to prevent some 2,000 residents of the area from re-enacting.