Traffic light installed at dangerous intersection

There’s a new traffic light near the intersection at Fort Independence and Heath avenues near P.S. 360, where one lawmaker has identified as a dangerous intersection.

That part of the road previously offered nothing more than a yield and stop signs, according to Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.

Dinowitz, along with a host of other elected officials including U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, state Sen. Jeffrey Klein and Councilman Andrew Cohen, called upon the transportation department last February to release the results of the traffic safety study conducted last fall.

The Y-shaped intersection runs in all directions, and now there is a traffic light where only a yield sign used to be, Dinowitz said.

Jordan Moss, a member of the Fort Independence Park Neighborhood Association, organized a petition gathering more than 300 signatures calling for the transportation department to release its traffic study and make safety improvements. Moss said he was afraid to let his 12-year-old daughter, Devin, cross that street by herself.

Crosswalks are expected to follow soon, according to the release.

Lehman says bye-bye to some textbooks

Lehman College will convert 15 courses from using textbooks to sending students to the Open Educational Resources system. The digital library has teaching and learning materials like texts, periodicals and education video games. Students could use the materials at no charge, announced the school in a release.

The move is estimated to save students $240,000 in textbook costs, according to the school. The rollout is expected to continue through spring classes.
Some of the courses converting to digital include business law, creative writing, women’s studies, and media and communications. The state allocated more than $120,000 to launch the initiative. 

The Mount appoints interim dean

The College of Mount Saint Vincent named Lynne Bongiovanni as the undergraduate college’s interim dean.

Bongiovanni, a faculty member at The Mount since 2004, served as chair of the faculty senate and director of both the Mount Mentors program and ParaMount Perspectives lecture series.

She also won teacher of the year in 2012 by students after finishing as a finalist over four years between 2006 and 2011.

Cuomo signs bill to reduce childhood obesity

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill late last month designed to reduce childhood obesity and diabetes. State Sen. Jeffrey Klein and Assemblyman Marcos Crespo created the legislation, according to a release from Klein’s office.
The bill allows schools to include a diabetes risk analysis during health exams as well as have school districts create nutrition advisory committees.

Schools should be the first line of defense in ensuring students learn healthy eating habits, and the new legislation provides students and families with the knowledge on how to curb this epidemic, and provide information on healthier lifestyle choices, according to Klein.

“Obesity and diabetes are at epidemic levels, and our public health systems must pay full and immediate attention to the harm being caused,” Crespo said in a release. “We have over 10,000 children under 18 years of age with Type 2 diabetes in the New York State Medicaid program. In New York State, we have 35 percent of our population classified as pre-diabetic, due to obesity.”