New York City officials have had myriad problems in recent years with the Springfield Gardens Apartments complex.

But the only thing residents who live near the complex wanted to talk about at a meeting of the Springfield Taxpayers Association on Tuesday night was garbage on the site, and how it can be eliminated.

Dear Editor:

On the northeast corner of Northern Boulevard and the Clearview Expressway in Bayside, is a green area where the Soldier’s Monument proudly stands. The monument commemorates the sacrifices that our brave men and women made serving in the Armed Forces during wartime. Unfortunately, this green area is frequently littered. Recently, I picked up a bag of cups, remains of lunches and other bits and pieces of debris that some people thoughtlessly left behind near this symbol of honor. And I thought how disgraceful that this special site should be befouled with garbage, this site where we should be remembering and respecting our fallen heroes.

This is not the first time I stopped to pick up litter there. There used to be a litter basket by the bus stop in front of the monument. But it is gone. Again. My understanding is that Sanitation keeps taking the baskets away because people keep putting household garbage in them. But is it better to take away the baskets and have litter left on the ground by the monument and other areas? It does not make sense to me.

Litter baskets along much of Northern Boulevard keep getting removed. So where does the debris go? It goes in the streets, or is left on the sidewalks, or it clogs the catch basins, or it lands in green areas. I walk a lot and I have been astonished at the amount of litter that I see on my travels of late. Garbage and litter are also problems by many businesses throughout the community. And let’s not forget the dog poop issue. Why do some owners allow their pets to poop on sidewalks and then just leave it behind for someone to step in?

It is time for all of us to be more cognizant about these problems. If you have litter, please dispose of it properly. Please pick up after your pet like most owners do. Sanitation also has to improve its efforts in confronting this issue. All members of the community, including businesses, should do their part in keeping their neighborhood litter free and beautiful.

An appeals court has rejected a request from Friends of LaGuardia Airport to review federal recommendations for construction of a 100-foot-high garbage transfer station near the end of the airport’s Runway 31.

FOLA, led by Kenneth Paskar, has been challenging the process by which the city, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Federal Aviation Administration arrived at the decision to approve and build the North Shore Transfer Station, a 100-foot-high garbage facility in College Point.

(NAPSI)—Any time can be the right time to tackle those household chores you have been avoiding. However, there are a number of tasks that demand to be handled once the weather turns warm.

As Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on sugary drinks over 16 ounces is set to take effect on March 12 in New York City, the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation have joined in the lawsuit aginst it, advocating for smaller minority businesses that might be affected.

The proposal made last year by Bloomberg, who has already reduced salt and banned smoking in public places, was approved by the Board of Health over concerns about the increasing obesity epidemic. Next month, all sodas and other sugary drinks over 16 ounces will be banned from city-regulated fast food restaurants, movie theaters, street carts and bodegas. But the soft drink industry and business owners who could be affected financially continue to fight it in state Supreme Court.

(BPT) - For generations, families have passed down home-spun remedies that can help loved ones feel that even during those sniffles and sneezes, they’re cared for. Having a bowl of grandma’s famous soup or your aunt’s special healing concoction can help your body heal and set your mind at ease. Recently, a group of Latina mom bloggers shared their families’ home remedies that bring comfort to loved ones.

The Sanitation Department has extended the special debris pickup in areas hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy by another month.

Sanitation will continue to handle special storm debris collections in neighborhoods hit hard by the storm until Monday, Feb. 18. Originally, the pickup was scheduled to end Dec. 31 and then was extended until Jan. 14. But the department extended the collections again, responding to urging from City Council members representing hard-hit areas, including Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), who pushed the department to extend the deadline because of the need in Broad Channel and the Rockaways.

(BPT) - Everything old is new again. At least that’s a simplistic take on the tenets of upcycling, which translates to giving renewed purpose to something others send to landfills. For consumers with a passion for do-it-yourself projects, and the boards on Pinterest to prove it, upcycling has taken root. Some ideas are as simple as investing in a set of sharpies to transform ordinary cabinetry knobs into one-of-a-kind home accessories. Others require more time, as in creating a working chandelier from white plastic spoons. It’s a small step considering that Americans throw out enough disposable dinnerware to circle the equator 300 times, according to www.earth911.com.

The Sanitation Department’s special curbside storm debris pickup will end Monday and garbage collection schedules are back to normal in areas hardest-hit by Hurricane Sandy.

For many Queens residents, 2012 will be forever married to Superstorm Sandy and the havoc she wrought. For good or ill, North Queens was spared the brunt of the storm.

A sizeable number of downed trees and power outages hit the area, but most counted their luck. Compared to the borough’s southern edge, Sandy was forgiving to Flushing and its satellite neighborhoods.

(NewsUSA) - When major household appliances break, family stress starts to mount. Whether it's loads of clothes piling up in the laundry room or food spoiling in the refrigerator, the problem is often inconvenient and expensive to fix.

(BPT) - One of the many exciting and sometimes stressful parts of the holiday season is entertaining at home with friends and family. To prepare for their arrival you may be tempted to just clean the kitchen counters, toss a few extra towels in the guest bathroom and ignore the rest of the house. Instead, your visitors will enjoy the party more if they have full access to an open, organized and welcoming home.

Flushing stinks. A potent sour, fishy, and greasy stench lingers in the air, which residents and visitors say is unique to Flushing.

The problem is most acute along Flushing’s Main Street, between 41st and Sanford avenues, according to Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7. There are at least two supermarkets, a couple of grocery shops, and a dozen eateries on the short 750-feet stretch.

Dear Editor:

The MTA’s plans to remove more subway station trash cans misses the fact that besides litter left on platforms, subway cars and buses, riders have to deal with those hogging two seats, yawning, coughing or sneezing without covering up and the release of flatulence. Women are routinely accosted by gropers while perverts engage in other unhealthy sexual activities. Newsstand vendors provide employment. They count on revenues for sales of snacks and provide the MTA with millions in lease revenues. The city also counts on millions in tax revenues on sales of snacks. Some people with long subway rides need to eat due to medical conditions.

There are other ways to fight the growth of rats, mice and litter. The MTA should consider installing separate cans for recycling newspapers, plastic and glass along with regular garbage. Selling advertising on the side of cans could generate revenues to help cover the costs of more frequent off-peak and late-night collection and disposal. If asked, the NYC Department of Sanitation could do the same on the street adjacent to subway station entrances.

Many have long since forgotten that up until the late 1960s, it was common to find both penny gum and 10-cent soda machines dispensing products at many subway stations. It was a time when people respected authority and law. That generation of riders did not litter subway stations and buses leaving behind gum, candy wrappers, paper cups, bottles and newspapers. No one would openly eat pizza, chicken or other messy foods while riding a bus or subway.

There are also solutions in dealing with waiting for or riding the subway and having the “urge to go.” The odds of finding a working bathroom for “relief” may be too late. Until the early 1960s, most subway stations had clean, safe, working bathrooms with toilet paper. Revenues generated from a 10-cent fee helped cover the costs. Why not consider charging a fee between 25 cents and a dollar? That would generate revenues to assign a matron along with covering security and maintenance costs. This could help provide secure, fully equipped bathrooms at most of the 465 subway stations. Many riders would gladly pay this small price to ensure working bathrooms rather than face the current unpleasant alternatives which contribute to dirty subways.

Police have more important tasks to perform by preventing fare evasion, pickpockets, mugging, sexual harassment and other real crimes against victims rather than give out $250 fines to those caught snacking on the subways.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority expanded its trash can-free pilot program on Aug. 20 to eight more stations citywide in an effort to reduce the subway system’s rodent population.

Over the next several months, a total of 10 stations — two each in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens — will be made trash can-free. The two stations in Queens are the A station at 111th Street and the M and R station at 65th Street.

There are many facets to living Green that, at first glance, seem a little annoying or even outright preposterous. Why exactly should I pay substantially more for a light bulb that looks like a curly fry if my neighbor is already doing it? Is it really that important that I resize all my doors and windows, and install bamboo instead of hardwood floors? Well, the light bulbs are, at the end of the day, easy to replace and last longer, so it’s worth it in the long run. As for the bamboo and the house-wide resizing, they really are for the best but aren’t urgent and do require some planning.

It was appropriate that, for last week’s entry, I wrote about how to keep any kind of sink easily clean. Over the weekend, at a small gathering of friends, I was prompted to explain my job and the conversation eventually led to ways to keep the house clean easily in general and a friend asked about something that, in hindsight, should have been part of the discussion from the get-go: garbage disposals.

A cat left to die

Dear Editor:

It’s hardly a death sentence, but the man who killed a Flushing woman and then tore out her heart and a lung was sentenced last week to up to 29 years in prison.

Huang Chen, 49, did not respond when Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter asked him if he had anything to say on Dec. 21. But the judge was not as reticent.

Chen Huang is expected to spend the next 27 to 29 years in jail when he’s sentenced on Dec. 21 for murdering a Flushing woman last year and tearing out her heart and a lung.

Last week, Huang, 49, an undocumented Chinese immigrant from Shanghai, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the death of Qian Wu, 46, on Jan. 26, 2010. Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter said he would sentence Huang to the maximum under the law — 25 years — on the manslaughter charge and a consecutive two- to four-year term for evidence tampering.

New York City just got into the rag business, making it easier for residents to dispose of used clothing, towels, blankets, curtains, shoes, handbags, belts and other textiles.

Any apartment building with 10 or more units, as well as commercial and institutional sites, can participate by requesting a bin be placed in the facility at no cost to the building or taxpayers.

   No dumping

   Dear Editor:

The cleanup from Thursday’s storm has an added complication: tree removal must follow strict federal guidelines regarding the Asian long-horned beetle.

Quit now, fool!