It’s been over a year since the first issue of the PRESS of Southeast Queens and we’ve come a long way.

In the week following the celebration of our first anniversary, the PRESS has taken a trip back in time to examine some of the stories that appeared in our inaugural issue and how things have changed in the year since our paper was born.

As detailed in our first issue, the PRESS learned that the St. Albans Veterans Administration Extended Care Center, had been contaminated with radioactive waste that was a potential danger to human health.

According to army officials, one year later and decades after the contamination happened, a clean up of the site is almost complete.

"At this point, we’re about 95 percent done with the clean-up," said an Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson.

A $1.5 million major clean-up of the site, contaminated with the radioactive substance Strontium-90, began in November and has resulted in several tractor-trailers worth of contaminated materials being removed and shipped off to waste transfer stations.

A spokesperson said that the final shipments would be sent out sometime in mid-July, followed by a survey which will study whether the hospital can be used for other uses.

The PRESS featured two stories on page 3 of its first issue that would foreshadow things to come in the year that followed — charter schools and the future of the Reverend Floyd Flake.

As the first edition of PRESS went to press, Southeast Queens received approval for a new charter school – the Merrick Academy Queens Public Charter School on Farmers Boulevard.

Congressman Gregory Meeks has continued to fight for funding to make Southeast Queens "a transportation hub."

The school was to begin by housing 350 students and unlike regular public schools would require uniforms, have two teachers per classroom, and include longer school days and years.

According to school Principal Alma Alston, the first year of the school has gone "about as well as you can expect from the first year a school is open. There had to be an adjustment to the school from the students and faculty but everyone has done well, even though many people in the community don’t really understand what a charter school is or what we do here."

Several months after the approval of the Merrick Academy, controversy about charter schools exploded citywide when Mayor Rudy Giuliani unveiled his now infamous plan to privatize some of the city’s worst schools and turn them into private schools.

The plan was overwhelmingly rejected by parents and is now referred to by many as the "Edison Schools Debate" named after the company that was to take over the schools.

Right at the center of the privatization debate was former Congressman Reverend Floyd Flake, who serves as the president of Edison.

Several months before the controversy, Flake was featured in that first issue in both an interview on his role at Edison and the first entry of
his column for the Press, "Flake’s Take."

In the exclusive interview with PRESS Executive Editor Tamara Hartman on his appointment to the Edison Schools position, Flake shot down rumors he would be running for mayor .

As it turned out, the decision not to seek office was a sign
of things to come. When George W. Bush was elected President and was putting together his cabinet, Flake
was selected but turned down a position as Secretary of Education.

According to sources, President George W. Bush has held up a multi-billion dollar plan being pushed by Congressman Gregory Meeks and written about in the PRESS’ first issue.

Meeks told the PRESS he was attempting to get a total of $10.5 million in funding for two projects that would help make Southeast Queens a "transportation hub."

The first issue of the PRESS featured a story on a potentially hazardous radioactive site, which will finally be cleaned this summer.

The majority of the money, $10 million, went to the much-discussed East Side Access Project, which would link Long Island Rail Road stations in Southeast Queens and across the city with the East Side of Manhattan.

Funding for the $4 billion project comes from a joint effort between the state, city and federal government, and a Meeks spokesperson said the progress of the project is not being helped by the new administration. Said spokesperson Mike McGovern, "There’s a new sheriff in town. Hopefully the project will be able to move further ahead, but we’ll see." In the meantime, the Congressman has requested an additional $149 million for East Side Access.

That same week Meeks requested $500,000 for the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation (GJDC) to help build up the area around the newly started AirTrain construction. Said Meeks, "We don’t want people to just pass by Jamaica – we want them to stay here."

In an article in the first issue titled "The Boss is Back," PRESS Crime Editor Liz Goff reported on the return of 35-year NYPD veteran and former 113th Precinct Commanding Officer Thomas Lawless’ return to Southeast Queens – this time as commander of Patrol Borough Queens South.

Lawless said at the time he had been welcomed back by many old friends who are eager to "pick up where we left off." According to NYPD statistics, in the last year crime has gone down 17 percent compared to this time last year.

In honor of his 90th birthday in May, 2000, the Flushing Council on the Arts made a push to have 113th Avenue named after legendary jazz bassist and local product Milton Hinton.

The plan was turned down by the city, however, because according to law a street cannot be named after someone unless they are deceased.

Unfortunately, Hinton passed away six months later, in December of 2000 and according to the Council on
the Arts, a plan is once again in the works for "Milton Hinton Avenue."