![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/003p1_xlg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t<\/p>\n
20 Years Ago \u2013 Patrick Clark sits beneath the dome\u2019s cupola on Tuesday, inspecting his work.<\/p>\n
10 Years Ago\n<\/p>\n
According to a published report by DNAinfo.com, Yitzchok Leshinsky, the former Chief Executive Officer of the non-profit that operates the homeless shelter in Rockaway, is under investigation by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York City Department of Investigation. Leshinsky founded Housing Bridge in 2006 and ran the non-profit until he resigned in February 2015 amid questions of financial improprieties. As CEO of Housing Bridge, Leshinsky received $260 million from the city\u2019s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) to operate shelters for the city\u2019s homeless. According to a report by TheRealDeal.com, $60 million of that total was granted after de Blasio became mayor. The Wave has been critical of the relationship between DHS and Housing Bridge since it was announced in July 2014 that a \u201ctemporary\u201d homeless shelter was to be placed at the former Daytop facility on Beach 65th Street. The Wave had obtained months of emails from DHS officials to electeds such as Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Councilman Donovan Richards stating that there were \u201cno plans\u201d to put a shelter on the peninsula. Then, in December of 2014, then-DHS Commissioner Gilbert Taylor wrote to de Blasio to propose making the \u201ctemporary\u201d shelter a long-term facility. It was granted, completely circumventing by two months, what was supposed to be an initial six-month review process .\n<\/p>\n
At 3:38 p.m. on March 24, the Facebook page for Mrs. Elaine\u2019s School of Dance posted a heartfelt message. It read \u201cDear Studio Families, We are deeply saddened to inform you all that our beloved Mrs. Elaine has passed away.\u201d After a short, but hard-fought battle with breast cancer, Elaine Freeburg, 38, died earlier that day. She leaves behind her husband, John, and daughters, Ella, age 3, and Jesse, 9 months. Since its opening on Beach Channel Drive in 2009, Mrs. Elaine\u2019s School of Dance has been a part of the community and the lives of many Rockaway youngsters. Freeburg herself had begun dancing at 5 years old, became a certified instructor at 18, and taught hundreds of students at various studios before opening her own. She taught tap, ballet, jazz and modern dance, hiphop and other styles.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
20 Years Ago\n<\/p>\n
The installation of the Tribute Park dome is slated to begin this week, and the artist who\u2019s building it has set a date in early April for the final unveiling, The Wave learned this week.\n<\/p>\n
Final construction of the dome will begin Friday morning when stained glass artist Patrick Clark and his crew set up scaffolding and begin the installation of the steel support structure for the cupola. The individual pieces containing the stained glass and tribute stars will be installed in the days thereafter, he said. \u201cThe light at the end of the tunnel is shining on Tribute Park,\u201d said Clark, who was clearly upbeat when he told The Wave about his progress and plans. His mood is understandable: The master glassman fell under criticism from some members of the Tribute Park Committee and the community when he failed to deliver the dome \u2013 a costly and prominent component \u2013 in time for the park\u2019s opening day, last November.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
40 Years Ago\n<\/p>\n
Numerous calls to The Wave from local residents asking if Rockaways\u2019 Playland is opening this season are met with some answers. \u201cAs of now, the park remains closed.\u201d The 84-year-old amusement park, recently purchased from the Geist family by Peter Horowitz, is having a tough time getting liability insurance.\n<\/p>\n
Rockaway\u2019s first four bus stop shelters were put up on Wednesday, March 27, in accordance with directives issued by Warde Electric, subcontractor for Miller Sign.\n<\/p>\n
Three teenagers were arrested on Monday afternoon, March 24, in Far Rockaway after another teenager was shot in the stomach. As police put the case together, there was an argument in the street (Beach 25th Street near Rockaway Freeway) at about 2:30 when a youth pulled out a handgun and fired.\n<\/p>\n
In a decision by Justice Joan Marie Durante, the Supreme Court, Queens County, has set aside the Belle Harbor Property Owners Association election of Dec. 11 and directed that a new election be held. The decision was based on a suit brought by Robert P. Shaughnessy and John J. Walsh.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
50 Years Ago\n<\/p>\n
Troop 30 of Dayton embarked on a cleanup campaign in the Rockaway Beach area. The boys are also collecting aluminum cans. Anyone wishing to bring cans may do so on Tuesday evenings between 7:30 and 10.\n<\/p>\n
With all the fuss over the cleanup of empty lots by New York City, it seems to us that better use would be served if the Sanitation Department and the Parks Department got together and did a super cleanup job on the beaches.\n<\/p>\n
Rockaway is losing 25 police call boxes in the city\u2019s effort to reduce outlay. Seventeen boxes are in the 100 Precinct, and eight are in the 101st Precinct.\n<\/p>\n
Surfside Cinema and Belle Harbor Cinema are both under new management. Both are showing family-style pictures. Those people who complain when theatres revert to X-rated flicks will have no one to blame but themselves if they don\u2019t patronize them now.\n<\/p>\n
Rockaway Beach residents have petitioned Councilman Walter Ward and Borough President Donald Manes for indestructible benches for the boardwalk.\n<\/p>\n
Stunned by the announcement that the City of New York wants to put the Rockaway courthouse on the auction block, the Chamber of Commerce of the Rockaways, led by Vincent O\u2019Connor, is launching a major campaign to block the move. The courthouse has been closed for judicial business since 1962.\n<\/p>\n
Assemblyman Brian Sharoff of Brooklyn is urging that the 70-acre Arverne urban renewal area from Beach 61st Street to Beach 73rd Street be grassed over \u2013 at least for the short term. A Tivoli Gardens concept, for which the city offered the land to private builders on Oct. 26, 1975, \u201cwas a bomb,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
60 Years Ago\n<\/p>\n
Mourners at the funeral services for Wave Associate Editor Lenny Miller, Sunday morning, were a veritable \u201cwho\u2019s who\u201d of the Rockaways and Five Towns, which he had covered as a newspaperman for more than 35 years.\n<\/p>\n
Work is progressing nicely on the addition to the Peninsula National Bank in Arverne.\n<\/p>\n
Carleton Manor, the soon-to-be completed public housing project at 71-15 Beach Channel Drive, is quite a tower amid the smaller dwellings in the neighborhood.\n<\/p>\n
The Sears-Roebuck store at 32-31 Beach Channel Drive, Edgemere, is celebrating its second anniversary.\n<\/p>\n
Latest to leave the Far Rockaway business district is attorney Marvin Schacler, who is moving his law office to Cedarhurst, joining a growing number of former Rockawayites.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
70 Years Ago\n<\/p>\n
Miss Ann Smith of East 9 Road, Broad Channel, Mrs. Lillian Barrow of Church Road, and \u201cPop\u201d Quick of Cross Bay Boulevard spent Easter at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Everett A. Smith in East Meadow, Long Island.\n<\/p>\n
Lieutenant (JG) Stanley J. Effross, 24, and son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Effross of 2501 Bayswater Ave., Far Rockaway, was one of nine men killed last Thursday in Culebra, Puerto Rico when a flyer bombed an observation balloon by accident.\n<\/p>\n
Mrs. Regina Brandenberg has been appointed captain of the Red Cross nurses\u2019 aides at Rockaway Beach Hospital.\n<\/p>\n
New York City Police Department Captain Chris Anderson has succeeded Captain Michael Hagan as Commander of the 100th Precinct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20 Years Ago \u2013 Patrick Clark sits beneath the dome\u2019s cupola on Tuesday, inspecting his work. 10 Years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-191454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}