Daily News from New York, New York • 433

Wednesday, March 14, 1990 yr1" DAILY NEWS XQ 5 1 1 a mm ODBlnioairsG Wm Two were identified by a 3d; one to go in the back of the car at the time of the attack, but got out and acted as lookout when Mitchell and Clarke allegedly raped the victim. The victim told investigators she was held for more than an hour and ultimately was thrown out of the car near the Marcy Houses project in Brooklyn. Strawder and Mitchell were arrested on other charges four days after the By EDWARD FROST Daily News Staff Writer Two members of a teen gang that abducted, raped and beat an Elmhurst woman have admitted their part in the attack, Queens prosecutors said yesterday. Rodney Bacchus, 18, of Stuyvesant and David Clarke, 15, of Monroe SL, both of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to first-degree rape be- guilty last May and is now serving a 2-to-6-year term. A fourth teen, Otis Lee Mitchell, 18, of Lexington Brooklyn, is to start trial March 22 on charges that include rape, sodomy, kidnaping, assault and robbery.

Queens District Attorney John Santucci said the indictments against the four charged that they assaulted a fore Kew Gardens Supreme Court Justice Ralph Sherman. Bacchus is expected to get to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 2. Clarke is expected to get 2 to 6 years behind bars. The two were identified in the attack last year by a third member of the group, Wayne Strawder, 17. He pleaded 22-year-old Elmhurst woman about 6:15 a.m.

on Jan. 9, 1989 as she was on her way to the Grand Ave. subway station. Two of the defendants jumped out of a car and forced her inside. An off-duty transit cop heard her screams and chased the car but lost it When Strawder pleaded guilty, he said he was asleep facelift that will include everything $18 million, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge was the gateway to the 1939 World's Fair.

When it opened, it was the fourth-largest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 2,300 feet and a total length of 7,140 feeL When it opened, the toll for cars and horse-drawn vehi nfciif i cry-y i iri1ir'lllWli-Mniiiiiiililliii''ii BRIDGE WORK: The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge will undergo two-year-long drainage. from bridge structure work to new cles was 25 cents. Cars now pay $2.50 and horse-drawn vehicles are no longer allowed to use the bridge. If the bridge were to be replaced today, the city would need 10 to 12 years and $800 million, according to estimates by the Williamsburg Bridge Technical Advisory Committee. By ALBERT DA VI LA Daily News Staff Writer The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge is scheduled to undergo this spring a $20.3 million, two-year-long facelift that will include everything from the bridge structure work and anchorages to roadway repairs and new drainage.

The work, one of the largest single contracts awarded by the Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority in recent years, is not expected to interrupt rush-hour traffic. Reconstruction will take place between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and at night. The bridge carries an average of 93,000 vehicles a day and will continue to do so during construction, according to a spokesman for the TBTA.

The repair will also consist of surface concrete work, suspender rope repair, conduit replacement, new walkway grating and other work. During a recent inspection tour of the bridge, which opened April 29, 1939, state Sens. Guy Velella (D-Bronx) and Leonard Stavisky (D- By JAMES PETERS Daily News Staff Writer Patients are again being admitted to the Veterans Hospital in SL Albans, officials of the still financially strapped medical center said yesterday. Just last fall, hospital officials, faced with a budget shortfall of several million dollars, announced that they would have to close several units at the 475-bed facility and stop admitting patients. But word came Thursday that Edward Derwinski, the U.S.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs, had approved an allocation of slightly more than $1 million to the beleaguered medical facility's operating budget The cost of the project will be financed entirely by the TBTA. The work is the product of a 21-month design project and part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Construction Program. Built in record time 23 months at a cost of about VA's Chaplain Corps, was at SL Albans last month to preside over the re-dedication of its non-denominational chapel, he was asked to approach Derwinski for help. "Our prayers have been answered," said one wife of a patient at SL Albans. But an official of the Brooklyn Veterans Administration Medical Center, of which SL Albans is a part, said that the new funds will only permit it to re-open two units with 51 beds that had been consolidated and to hire some new staff for those units.

"That's the intent," said Phil Moschitta, who handles day-to-day operations at SL Albans. "But that doesn't resolve all, our other, prob. lems. Whitestone) pointed to corroded cables and wooden timbers now used to support the bridge. "This repair work is long overdue," said Velella.

"Tem-porary wooden timbers should not have been used to support the bridge for more than two years." According to SL Albans officials, the action enabled them to begin admitting sick veterans to the hospital immediately. VA officials here believe that Derwinski approved the additional funds as a result of pressure brought by relatives of sick and needy vets and by volunteers who serve at SL Albans. When the VA hospital ran into financial problems, officials drew up plans to close down two intermediate-care units, freeze admissions, and lay off staff to close the budget gap. Veterans' groups and family members cried, "Foul!" And when the Rev, Herbert Cleveland, the chief of the Blood drive for NYU student A blood drive will be held in Forest Hills on Sunday, not only to obtain desperately needed blood but to test the blood for bone-marrow suitability for leukemia patient Allison Atlas, a New York University student whose search for a compatible bone-marrow donor has attracted national attention. Sunday's blood drive, sponsored by the Jewish community of Forest Hills and Chemical Bank, will be held from 10 a.m.

until 2 p.m. at the Shirley Davidman Youth Center, 68-07 Burns SL, Forest Hills. The drive will benefit Long Island Jewish Medical Center and is part of Chemical Bank's campaign to increase blood-donation awareness. New York City's hospitals need about 2,200 pints of blood each day. Blood donors are asked to call Chemical Bank at (212) 820-3095 during business hours or at (718) 261-2756 after 5 p.m.

to make an appointment and minimize waiting time. Queens organizations participating in the blood drive are: Congregation Ahavath Shalom, Congregation Machane Chodosh, the Forest Hills Jewish Center, Havurat Yisrael. the Queens Jewish Center, the Rego Park Jewish Center, the Sephardic Jewish Center, Temple Isaiah, Temple Sinai, the Young Israel, and the YM-YWHA of Central Queens. i i Stewart Ain 3- "I.