Daily News from New York, New York • 383

i l. i ii ii Thursday, August 22, 1991 L. Ill pill Phones Queens News Bureau (718) 699-7200 Fax (212) 210-2231 Hone Delivery 1-800 692-NEWS Community news in LI. listings For information on civic groups, entertainment, and other happenings, see the Bulletin Board. -PageQLI 9 Digging on storm sewer s-at last southeast Queens, said Dan Andrews, a spokesman for Shulman.

Andrews said the reason it took so long for the project to come to fruition was the number of state and city agencies involved and the amount of permits required. The digging began yesterday on Rockaway a mile east of the entrance to Kennedy Airport at Gate 96. This first phase of construction will cost $14.9 million and take two years to complete. In this stage, one of the larger pipes By NATALIE P. BYF1ELD Daily News Staff Writer After wending its way through the bureaucracy for 20 years, a $100 million storm sewer project designed to relieve flooding in several southeast Queens neighborhoods began yesterday.

The work will be done in six stages, span 5,000 acres, and take 10 years to be completed. It is expected to end the chronic flooding after heavy rainfalls that has filled basements with water and turned streets into ponds for thousands of residents in Cambria Heights, Queens Village, Laurelton, Springfield Gardens, Hollis, Rosedale and St Albans. Noting the amount of time it took to get the project off the ground, Queens Borough President Claire Shulman said at yesterday's groundbreaking ceremony, "I can't believe we're here today. This is a historic moment." The project was initiated in the 1970s after the growing number of calls complaining about flooding in that empties into the Carson St. line will be channeled to a new line, said Andrews.

This will provide drainage for the territory bordered by Jamaica Bay on the south, the Grand Central Parkway on the north, Springfield and Francis Lewis Blvds. on the west, then all the way over to the Nassau County line on the east. The affected area primarily covers Queens Village, Cambria Heights, Laurelton and Rosedale. DA race is running on paper trail By JAMES DAP Daily News Staff Writer The fate of Queens district attorney candidate Vincent Nicolosi could well hinge on his decision not to provide an appeals court with a $12,000 court transcript In briefs and oral arguments before the state Appellate Division in Manhattan yesterday, attorneys for interim District Attorney Richard Brown contended Nicolosi's appeal should be rejected because he failed to provide the transcript from a lower court case. Nicolosi is appealing state Supreme Court Justice John Leahy's decision knocking him out of the September Democratic primary against Brown.

The appellate court's decision is expected today. "Whose facts are the judges going to believe? Mine or his?" asked Michael Reich, one of Brown's attorneys. "The court can't rule without a transcript." In a hearing yesterday, Justice George Smith also seemed concerned about the lack of a transcript, repeatedly asking Nicolosi's attorney how the five-judge panel could rule without a definitive record of testimony. Nicolosi's attorney, Joseph Giaimo, said the transcript was not only too costly but also unneeded. But if the appellate panel decides to rule without the transcript, that could work in Nicolosi's favor by forcing the judges to depend on Leahy's written decision.

That decision while going against Nicolosi cites only two cases of actual fraud by the Nicolosi camp. Brown's attorneys had argued there were thousands of fraudulent signatures on Nicolosi's nominating petitions. In yesterday's hearing, several judges questioned whether just two cases of fraud were sufficient to throw a candidate off the ballot. And one judge asked whether Nicolosi's campaign could actually be accused of systematic fraud when campaign workers hadn't made any effort to disguise changes in the tainted pe-' titions. OF THE REMAINS of more than three dozen tall trees that have been cut down by Parks Department in the area near the Unisphere in Rushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The action has angered preservationists. mutummuu. daily news Felled park trees trigger outrage ings and the installation of a granite art piece by Matt Mullican. Most of the uprooted trees were planted some 27 years ago for the 1964-65 World's Fair, Abramowitz said. Misshapen trees "The yews were basically misshapen over the years and their top branches were diseased, Abramowitz explained.

"We decided to remove them and plant new holly trees on those sites because they can grow without a lot a pruning." The department's reasoning failed to sway Shirley Weinstein, co-chair of the Committee for the Preservation of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. "There's no excuse for knocking down trees that old and that beautiful," Weinstein asserted. "It's too much of a coincidence that it happens now when the USTA wants 32 acres of parkland." By CLAIRE SERAWT Daily News Staff Writer In a decision that outraged preservationists, the Parks Department has cut down more than three dozen tall trees surrounding the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, saying they are being replaced with new trees requiring less maintenance. Critics in the surrounding community and within the Parks Department called the decision a mistake. "We're all upset," said a Parks employe who asked not to be identified.

"In an urban environment it's best to preserve the trees that exist. You shouldn't remove something that's alive." Suspicion voiced Critics also voiced suspicion the tree removal was linked to the controversial proposed expansion of the National Tennis Center, which has housed the United States Ten nis Association at the park since 1978. The USTA, whose lease expires in 1994, wants an additional 32 acres of parkland. Connection denied But parks officials said there was no such connection. They said 14 damaged or diseased yew and 30 honeylocust trees were being replaced by one of the 420 new species of trees designated for the park in an upgrade project that began Aug.

1. "The plan goes back some 4Vfe years way before the tennis expansion was thought of," said Arne Abramowitz, a Parks administrator. "The bottom line is the renovation, once it's completed, will benefit the park and the public." The upgrade project slated to continue for two years will give the Unisphere area a "face-lift" with new red oak, holly, white pine and other trees, two rose gardens, decorative pavement, benches, plant- 1.