Daily News from New York, New York • 322

IWSoktYN THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1977 BKL1 $ats Lewe Bmkvmk Area Hiidge wood Pickin YOU CAN HELP Here are some measures residents can take to help control rat infestation in their neighbor hoods: Dispose of garbage in metal containers that have tight-fitting lids. Never leave garbage outdoors is paper bags as rats can easily gnaw into the garbage. Do not keep arbage overnight in your homes as rats are attracted to all food odors. Close all openings to the outside in foundations, doors and windows of homes and apartmen buildings. Keep basements clean and place storage off the floor and away from the walls.

If you spot a rat. do not touch it, even if it is dead, as they carry disease. And, lastly, parents should be especially careful that their children are dree of food particles as rats will go for the food and bite the child. If you have a problem with or have detected rats, contact the city's Bureau of Pest Control at (22) 566-8023. By MURRAY WEISS Rats fleeing burned out Bushwick have crossed borough lines into Queens seeking food and shelter and frightened residents of Ridgewood are pushing for the dubious designation as a target area for rat control.

"Ridgewood is a very good and very stable neighborhood and it would be a shame if we did not stop this before it gets out of hand," said Solomon Peeples, deputy director of the city's Bureau for Pest Control. Prompted by complaints of their constituency, city and state leaders met last week with the State Health Department to obtain $225,000 for the city to combat rat infestation in a 75-block area of Ridgewood. Pest Control Ready Peoples said that Pest Control is prepared to go into the area if the money is granted to Ridgewood, making the community the ninth in the city to win target area status. The dubious distinction is generally reserved for such impoverished areas as Harlem, Bushwick and the South Bronx. "People are up in arms over there and you can't blame them because rats mean filth and Ridgewood is not that way." Peoples maintained.

The city began to recognize the problem with rats in Queens last year when complaints from angry Ridgcwcod residents mounted. Testimony at last, week's meeting also indicated that Queens residents now make up a higher percentage of New York- ited active signs of rats, had 15 of its garbage x-posed and a large percentage of its containers were faulty. Area Needs State Help Acdording to Peeples. these are sufficient numbers to indicate that hhe area needs state help. "We made these facts known at the meeting last week," he added.

The flight of rats from Bushwick began severel years ago but didn't get mass attention in Ridgewood until residents began to spot the vermin on the streets during the say and in larger numbers. "They are the greatest integrationists and could not care less where they live." said Peeples. "The fact that they are out during the day, which is very unusual because they fear people, is that they are hungry." "But they basically left Bushwick because they needed better he continued. Can Be Controlled According to Peeples, it is a pipe dream to try to completely eliminate the rats, but they can be controlled. He said that workers are prepared for concentrated effort in Ridgewood to posion the rodents, and clean up the area.

In addlion. staff will bisit schools and meeting halls to educate residents on how to help control the disease carrying pests. It will probably be several weeks before final hearings are completed on the problem in Ridgewood and the State Health Dpartment reaches its decision of funding, he said. ers at 16 who complain about rats than ever bef oi e. City inspectors recently toured the Ridgewood area and found that it neede dspecial attention and preventive measures for rat control.

The 75-block area exhib aterf rant (Setts Buoy iail Grant of S30M By JOHN TOCANO Plans for an infusion of another $30 million into the rundown rail system that serves the Brooklyn waterfront area were announced yesterday by the City Planning Commission. Commission chairman Victor Marre- ro said that the funds, whicharepartof the $250 million state Rail Bond Preser-vatio nBond Act of 1974, are part of the city's "major strategy toward upgrading the city's competitive position with other states as a freight handler." The bulk of the funds, about $28 million, are targeted for improvements at Bush Terminal, in Bay Ridge. The remainder will be used for new facilities at the Port Authority piers at the Fulton and Atlantic terminals and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Sees More Jobs Marrero said that the new port projects when completed would provide an additional 3,000 jobs to the 7,000 existing jobs in the Bush Terminal. He said that the bulk of the Bush Terminal improvements would amount to about $17.7 million and would be used for acquisition and restoration of the former Penn Central Bay Ridge Yard which will then serve as Brooklyn's principal rail yard.

The plans call for new track and right-of-way improvements, new rail connections and railroad fencing and the modernization of rail car-float operations to service existing and new pier developments. These improvements will expand rail freight service and reduce the waterfront's dependence on truck traffic for the shipment of freight. Marrero said. A major component of the plan, he continued, is a proposed new overland rail route for freight service to provide an alternative to floating rail cars into the Brooklyn waterfront from New Jersey. The water route is presently the only method of transporting freight from other parts of the country.

The new overland route, which has already received some funding, would connect the Conrail Bay Ridge line with Bush Terminal, and would for the first time connect the waterfront to the U.S. mainland. Finish hy Truck Marrero noted that much of the floating rail car freight from New Jersey consists of freight containers which make the final part of their trip by truck. Eliminating the water route and replacing it with rail would make the Brooklyn piers more competitive with New Jersey port facilities, Marrero added. The $28 million targeted for improvements at Bush Terminal will be spent fo rehabilitating existing facilities, providing new rail connections to facilities' presently unserved, and for acquisition and development of the former Bay Ridge Rail Yard.

Among he new facilities that will be served by these improvements, Marrero said, will be the Moore-McCormic Piers, the North East Marine Terminal, the Cooperative Meat Markez, and the Brooklyn Army Terminal. News photo by Dan Jacino Charlie Chaplin starring in "City Lights" at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. They're Still Laughing at Chaplin do with the artist's death on Christmas Day. The film, "City Lights," made in 1931, was obviously as popular yesterday as it had ever been. Long-TIME Fans Before the film many people talked about Charlie Chaplin and his movies.

"We have seen them many times," said Ave. Zeigler, who was there in the auditorium with his wife to see the film again. Thy noted that their favorite Chaplin movie, "The Gold Rush," would be playing today. A group of students from Mesivta Hachel llalorah, a private school In Brooklyn, was anxious to see the little funny man. "He is funny with no speech," said Gamliel Oziel, 16.

Of course, to some of the older people in the audience silent films were not a novelty. A Lesson for the Young "It is important that students see him," explained Jrrry Lebowitz, a teacher. "They should see how comedy began." Maria Cueras sitfply said, "I never got tired of his pictsres." Perhaps that was the ultimate compliment. By JOAN SHEPARD Yesterday afternoon about 200 people, young and old and from different walks of life, sat in an auditorium and laughed as audiences have been doing for more than a half-century at a Charlie Chaplin movie. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden had scheduled three days of Chaplin movies many months ago when it planned its December afternoon film program.

So the timing of the movies had nothing to.