Newsday from New York, New York • 23

NEIGHBORHOODS By Merle English and Caryn Eve Wiener Phone Items to (718) 520-0505 Flatbush, is helping form a new civilian patrol for the 20-block area bounded by Nostrand and Albany Avenues, Foster Avenue and Avenue H. Lob, the groups director, said that the organization customarily handles such things as home-improvement loans and rehabilitations. "But people in the community feel that this civilian patrol is the one issue that is important, she said. Police and neighborhood officials will meet Monday at 8 p.m. at the Vanderveer Methodist Church to discuss setting up the volunteer program.

"The police have a grant and they are going to provide radios for communication, she said. FOOTNOTES Helping Hand With Tax Filings With tax forms already arriving in the mail, taxpayers who want to get a jump on the April 15 filing deadline can get free help with preparing their returns. The American Association of Retired Persons and the IRS have trained volunteers who will work with older adults at the Brooklyn Public Library branches in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn Heights, New Utrecht, Highlawn and Midwood. People of all ages can get help through another program, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, provided by IRS-trained student volunteers from St. Johns University, which will be offered at the Gravesend branch.

Tax assistance will be available from the first week in February through April 15. Individuals should check the libraries for the schedule. Sunset Park A New Shade Of Green for a 45-Block Area You could call it the greening of Sunset Park. Eighty-one maples, oaks and other trees have been planted on sidewalks in front of homes in a 45-block area from Sixth Street to 16th Street between the waterfront and Eighth Avenue. The planting was organized by the Sunset Park Restoration Committee, which made trees available on a first-come, first-served basis.

They will make our streets a lot more beautiful, a lot more pleasant to look at, said Charles Bardach, a committee member. He said about 200 requests were made for trees. Community Board 7 and the Parks Department will provide trees for homeowners who did not receive one. Downtown Gallery Shows Art for Schoolchildren's Sake Some lessons can be made easier when they are studied through art. A group of elementary-school students studying geometry discovered this on a recent visit the Rotunda Gallery, which has developed a program designed to introduce students in kindergarten through 12th grade to contemporary art Cara Chandler, the gallerys educational program coordinator, keys current exhibits to the class work of students who will participate in the program.

When the geometry students visited a recent exhibition called the "Comer Show, in which works were created by artists to fit into corners, the children constructed angles from cardboard they then used to build street comers. The idea. Chandler said, is to supplement art programs in the schools, "and to get the children out to see where art is shown in the community and to reaffirm the value of art in this area. Park Slope Students Raise Money for MS With Their Feet One week ago today, an estimated 150 kids walked out of their classes at Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School and just started dancing. And dancing.

And dancing. They didnt stop until Saturday night By that time 24 hours later theyd gotten themselves sore muscles and aching feet and $15,000 for Muscular Dystrophy. The schools sixth annual dance marathon "was the smoothest we ever had, said faculty adviser Joseph Campanaro. But the real success, said Campanaro, wasnt just the amount raised, or the relatively smooth operation. It was the fact, he said, that the kids learned something atibut muscular dystrophy and its sufferers.

East Flatbush Safe Streets Are Considered Housing Issue Whos minding the store, or the house, or the apartment in the College-Glen section of East Flatbush? Until now, it has only been the police of the 67th Precinct, said Susan Lob. But now Lobs group. Neighborhood Housing Services of East Working to Bring Back Eastern Parkway When Eastern Parkway was in its heyday in the 1920s it was one of the most exclusive residential areas in Brooklyn. People would sit on the mall benches just to watch the wealthy professionals and politicians who lived in the penthouses drive by in their expensive cars. "This was like the Champa Ely-sees, recalled Alphonso Wright, district manager of Community Board 8, who grew up in the' area.

"You dressed when you walked on it. You used to be able to sit on the parkway and watch the traffic and enjoy the breeze. For the last three or four decades, however, Eastern Parkway has been in decline. Many of the graceful elm trees that lined the malls fell to Dutch Elm disease. Curb sections are missing in spots along the roadways two-mile length from Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope to Ralph Avenue in Brownsville.

Much of the decorative brick work paving the malls has been reduced to rubble, and the wood and concrete benches are weatherworn. "Today, if you sit there, its an indication you're either undercover or youre sick. Its just unbelievable to see, Wright said. This picture is expected to change in the next few years, because the revival taking place across much of Brooklyn is coming to the parkway. A $40-million plan has been drawn up for its reconstruction.

The money, mostly federal funds, will be used to rebuild the main roadway and the malls, put in new curbs, sidewalks and lighting, and upgrade the water mains, drainage systems and traffic signals. The first segment of the renovation will be from Washington Avenue to Pitkin Avenue and is scheduled to start in the spring of BROOKLYN CLOSEUP 1987, according to a spokeswoman for the dty Department of Transportation, which is sharing the project with the Highway Department and other government agencies. This phase of the work is expected to take about three years to complete. Wright said that during the reconstruction, the West Indian Day Carnival, an annual Labor Day event on the parkway, will be moved to Fulton Street or Empire Boulevard. Connie Lesold, former chairman of the boards Parks Committee, blamed the dilapidated condition of the parkway which was designated a landmark in 1978 on city neglect and on cars that run off the roadway and often knock down trees.

"The only people who tried to keep up this parkway have bedh the people in. the neighborhood, who painted benches and lobbied to have trees planted, she said. Eastern Parkway was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the early 1860s to provide a tree-lined thoroughfare for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians. It is the home of the Brooklyn Museum, the main branch of the Brooklyn Library, world headquarters of the Luba-vitcher movement, and St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden and several small parks are along its route. The eastern end is where most of its dilapidated housing stock is found. Yehuda Krinaki, a spokesman for the Lubavitcher movement which has been locate ted along the parkway for 45 years looks forward to its renaissance. He said, "We have seen it go through different periods and would love to see it restored to its grandeur. NEWSDAY, FRIDAY.

JANUARY 24, 1986 NY-B.