As the incinerator fight ends, a battle over schools begins

1997

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A desire for an additional local high school finally became a proposal to expand MS 141 up to twelfth grade. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz immediately backed the proposal, but it soon brought controversy to Riverdale and Kingsbridge over the issue of where the students would come from.

On the other end of the spectrum, another source of controversy finally ended. The Bronx Lebanon medical waste incinerator was shut down by the Department of Environmental Conservation on July 3. Riverdalian Alisa Eilenberg, who spent six years of her life working to prevent the incinerator from being built and then trying to get it shut down, was recognized by The Press for her unstinting effort.

Also shut down was a small nuclear test reactor at Manhattan College

Other local institutions also closed.

Riverdale’s Twin Cinemas in the Skyview shopping center was shut down by the marshal’s office in August after being unable to pay the bills. Various efforts to save the theater were futile.

And Broadway’s last Woolworth’s also locked its doors for good.

A little further up Broadway, it wasn’t an ending that gained notice, but rather the arrival of something new. The Tortoise and the Hare bronze statue just north of Manhattan College Parkway arrived in Van Cortlandt Park. Less welcome were continued maneuvers to place the Croton water filtration plant in the park.

And, The Riverdale Press began printing color photos.