By Dee Richard
After all the well wishes from the community board members, the current chair Jerry Iannece made the announcement that his term was up and he would be stepping down in March. He said that he has really enjoyed being chair for the past five years, and furthermore he was willing to support his successor. Evidently there are at least four or five others interested in filling the position.One of the outstanding candidates is Jim Rodgers. Rodgers served as president of the Auburndale Civic Association for many years. He gave up that position when he moved to Douglaston. J.R., as he is known by everyone, has successfully run the Little Neck Douglaston Memorial Day Parade for several years, one of the country's largest events. Under his leadership as chairman of the board, the parade has become even larger and more impressive. These look like good credentials for the Community Board 11 chairmanship. Good Luck, Jim! You have our vote.Speaking of the Little Neck Douglaston Parade Committee, they were all busy as bees on Wednesday night getting ready for their annual dinner dance. They were so busy I found myself pressed into service helping them stuff their invitation mailing envelopes for the dinner dance.This year's event will be held Feb. 8 at Terrace on the Park. The three dinner co-chairs are Barbara Quigley-Barba, Douglas Montgomery and Chet Szarejko. Do try and attend as it is always a fun evening and for a good cause.Usually Thursday is the busiest day of the week; this week it happened to be Saturday. It started off with breakfast at the Landmark Diner on Northern Boulevard. At the breakfast were Stanley Ross and Dr. Harshad Bhatt, the latter who told us that he has been appointed chairman of the New York Delegates of the Congress Party of India in the United States. Congratulations, Dr. Bhatt. At 5 p.m., Assemblywoman Ann Margaret Carrozza (D-Bayside) and her husband, Dr. William Duke, had a post-holiday party at their home in Bayside. Of course, their sons Billy and Danny stole the show. It was a nice party replete with a keyboard and guitar combo accompanied by a female singer. All three were exceptionally good. It was totally amazing how many people managed to attend the party. Thank you for the invitation; it was a fun party and a pleasant way to spend the evening with many old friends as well as making some interesting new ones. Saturday evening ended with the Polish Christmas Celebration of Oplatek at the Polonaise Catering Hall in Greenpoint. The entertainment was provided by the Polish children in traditional dress and, of course, Santa made his annual visit with gifts for all the children. Since Chet Szarejko has become actively involved with the Polish American Congress, he always invites us to this annual event.While there, I had a chance to chat with Albert Baldeo, a politically ambitious young Democratic attorney from Ozone Park. Baldeo said he was encouraged by his run against state Sen. Serf Maltese (R-Bellerose) due to the fact it was such a close race. Unless I miss my guess, Queens has not heard the last of him as apparently he has definitely been bitten by the political bug. The Oplatek was also an interesting way to end an evening.On Tuesday was the retirement luncheon at the Grand Bay Marina for Dr. Eve Hazel. It was a bittersweet luncheon. Everyone in attendance felt after all the many years of hard work, Hazel was certainly entitled to retirement because she has done such a great job at Transitional Services of New York, whose headquarters are located in Beechhurst. But it was clear that no one really wanted her to leave as witnessed by the memory book the staff presented to her. The book was filled with testimonials to her great achievements and the underlying sentiments were obviously of deep affection and love. She will be sorely missed. Good luck to you, Dr. Eve, in your retirement. I always look forward to hearing from you directly, with information on people, parties and politics or some plain old-fashioned gossip.That's it for this week. I look forward to receiving your voice mails at 718-767-6484, your faxes at 718-746-0066 and your e-mails at deerrichard@aol.com. Don't forget to check out the “Focus on Queens Page.” Till next week, Dee.
