Central/Mid Queens News

Maspeth held its annual Grand Avenue Festival Sunday, and as always the fun was endless. Sponsored by the Maspeth Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the Kiwanis and Lions clubs, the event featured all kinds of entertainment, rides, food and shopping.

With the Senate session winding down in Albany, and about a thousand bills left to debate, the hydrofracking moratorium bill may not even hit the floor for a vote. Most Queens lawmakers oppose allowing the drilling process in New York State without conclusive scientific evidence that it can be done safely, without contaminating groundwater.

The drilling process known as hydrofracking is used to obtain natural gas from rock formations, such as the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from New York’s Southern Tier to West Virginia. Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water along with a slurry of sand and about 600 chemicals into a narrow horizontal pipe at high pressure to induce “mini-earthquakes,” which release the natural gas.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio minces no words when asked why he is running for mayor and why he feels he is the best choice for the Democratic nomination.

“I am fundamentally dissatisfied with things in the city,” he said last week at a meeting with the editorial board of the Queens Chronicle.

Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott honored 11 teachers from around the city this week as winners of the first “Big Apple Awards” to recognize excellence in education, but none from Queens made the cut. Each winner will receive a $3,500 grant for use in the classroom and will serve as a “Big Apple Ambassador,” advising the city Department of Education.

The New York Mets continued a decade-long tradition in joining with the New York Blood Center to host a blood drive last Thursday at Citi Field.

More than 500 donors attended the event, which took place in the stadium’s Caesar’s Club from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a total of 565 pints were collected, according to the NYBC.

A Florida-bound plane was forced to land at JFK Airport Thursday morning after being struck by two birds.

JetBlue Flight 1205 to Fort Myers, Fla. took off from Westchester County Airport in White Plains around 8 a.m. and was struck by the birds over the Long Island Sound.

For years, Walmart has tried to open a location in the five boroughs, but pushback from workers unions and the City Council have cast the superstore behemoth back to the suburbs.

Most recently, the retail giant intended to open shop in Brooklyn but was shot down by the Council in the fall of 2012, and it seemed as though the company had largely abandoned Operation: Get into New York City, for good.

• Featured

Elected officials and community groups are making moves to improve the quality of life for the homes that line MTA’s Long Island Rail Road freight train tracks.

The tracks that cut through parts of Brooklyn and Queens, used mostly for freight and garbage transportation from Long Island, have been the subject of controversy for some time now as residents complain of excessive noise during late hours and high diesel exhaust emitted from locomotives, which have been known to cause asthma, diabetes and other health problems.

Parts of Ridgewood are being considered to become an Industrial Business Zone in an effort to foster growth in the neighborhood’s industrial sector. Community Board 5 will be hosting a public hearing next week to discuss the possible IBZ creation.

According to a press release, the area that would be converted includes blocks south of Myrtle Avenue by the Brooklyn-Queens border.