CITYWIDE

COUNCIL HOLDS HEARING ON WASTE DISPOSAL

Next month looks like the make-or-break date for a vote on Mayor Bloomberg’s waste disposal plan. The City Council’s Sanitation Committee held a hearing yesterday on Mr. Bloomberg’s Draft Solid Waste Management Plan, which proposed the development of four city-operated marine transfer sites for the shipment of garbage by rail and barge: two in Brooklyn, one in Queens, and one in Manhattan at East 91st Street and York Avenue. Department of Sanitation officials faced opposition yesterday from council members representing Manhattan and Brooklyn and a large contingent of Upper East Side community members, who protested the 91st Street station at City Hall. The council is also proposing its own initiative that would create a separate city office for waste reduction, reuse, and recycling.

– Special to the Sun

TASK FORCE: NEW ENERGY RESOURCES NOT NEEDED UNTIL AT LEAST 2012

Mayor Bloomberg’s energy task force announced yesterday that recent achievements in energy efficiency, new energy capacity, and infrastructure planning would obviate the need for new energy resources – like new power plants – until at least 2012. Previously, the task force indicated more power would be necessary by 2008. A task force member, Ashok Gupta, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that achievements to date give the city “a little breathing room.” A real estate executive with Rudin Management Company, John Gilbert, who helped author an energy report for the New York Building Congress, said that demand for more power in 2012 means that new energy projects need to start immediately. “People get lulled into complacency, but they don’t understand that it takes five to six years to build,” Mr. Gilbert said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

AUDIT: RODENT PROGRAM NEEDS TO HANDLE COMPLAINTS FASTER

A program that targets the city’s most rodent-infested neighborhoods – notably North Central Brooklyn, the South Bronx, and East Harlem – needs to change its procedures to make sure pest complaints are handled quickly, an audit by the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., stated yesterday. Mr. Thompson’s audit followed up on a 2003 finding that led the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which administers the pest-control effort, to make the programs more automated and computerized. Since 2003, the city has shortened how long it takes to do an initial inspection after a complaint, but the city takes longer than in 2003 to tell an owner that a property requires a pest-control program. The health department said in a statement that the agency is evaluating auditors’ suggestions.

– Special to the Sun

IN THE COURTS

WTC DEVELOPER, ANXIOUS OVER INSURANCE PAYMENTS, GOES TO COURT

The World Trade Center developer asked a court yesterday to declare that a recent reshuffling of the rebuilding plan does not give insurers a loophole to back out of billions in payments on the destroyed twin towers. Developer Larry Silverstein and the owner of the site, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, filed a complaint in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court alleging that several insurance companies – which control billions of dollars in rebuilding funds – have indicated they might not continue to make payments.

– Associated Press

BOY GEORGE AVOIDS JAIL TIME

Boy George won’t be going back to jail after all. A judge yesterday vacated a warrant for Boy George’s arrest and told the former Culture Club singer he will let him complete a non-jail sentence stemming from his arrest for cocaine possession.

– Associated Press

LAWYER: CITY SHOULD NOT BE LIABLE FOR INJURIES FROM 9/11 CLEANUP

A lawyer for the city, James Tyrrell Jr., argued in a motion to dismiss before the United States District Court in Manhattan yesterday that the city should not be held liable for health injuries sustained by people involved in the cleanup effort in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The federal government, not the city, was in charge, Mr. Tyrrell said. The judge, Alvin Hellerstein, however, said he doubted he would be willing to find that simply by calling in federal organizations the entire site was federalized, and said it was more likely that the federal and local government were acting in collaboration.

– Special to the Sun

MODEL NAOMI CAMPBELL SUED BY ANOTHER MAID

Naomi Campbell is being accused of less-than-model behavior again, this time by another of her maids who claims the supermodel hit her.

– Associated Press

TWO BICYCLISTS DIE IN SEPARATE INCIDENTS

Two bicyclists died yesterday morning, police and Transportation Alternatives officials said. One bicyclist, a 23-year-old man who wasn’t identified yesterday, was riding west on Houston Street, and was close to the intersection of La Guardia Place when he fell under a truck at about 9:30 a.m., police said. Paramedics declared him dead at the scene. The driver of the truck was issued six summonses for equipment violations. The other bicyclist who died was Carl Nacht, who was struck by a New York Police Department tow truck on the West Side highway last Thursday. He succumbed to his injuries yesterday morning, Transportation Alternatives officials said. Police could not confirm Nacht’s death yesterday.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BROOKLYN

OFFICIALS BREAK GROUND FOR WATERFRONT PROJECT

The Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront took one more step toward its transformation yesterday as Mayor Bloomberg and other top city officials broke ground on the first residential development since the area was rezoned last year. Two housing complexes, Northside Piers and Palmer’s Dock, will be built as part of the first phase of development, providing almost 300 units of market rate and “affordable” housing scheduled for completion in spring 2008. Nearly 11,000 housing units are slated for the formerly industrial area, of which 3,500 will be below market rate.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun