On Friday, December 4th, volunteers from the Juniper Park Civic Association painted the railroad bridge on Eliot Avenue between Lutheran Avenue and 74th Street. Since 1991 the civic association has been maintaining the bridge area by painting over graffiti and sweeping the area (see before photo from 1991).

“In the 1991 JPCA cleanup project we used the color “Puritan Stone” which was manufactured by California Paints, but the company discontinued the color and for several years different tints were used on the bridge,” said Robert Holden, president of the JPCA. He organized the original cleanup in 1991.

Harry Lambros, owner of Harry’s Hardware on Eliot Avenue & 82nd Street offered to mix the original color and that sparked the JPCA to schedule the cleanup. “The bridge was transformed in 1991 from a graffiti covered eyesore to an area befitting Middle Village,” said Holden. With the latest painting Holden said the area was spruced up again.

The latest cleanup returned the bridge to the inviting warm architectural gray rather than the multicolored gray tints used to cover the graffiti. JPCA volunteers: Dieter Keppler, Lee Rottenberg, Len Santoro, Theresa Riley and Holden finished the north side of the bridge and touched up the south side before they ran out of paint. Harry Lambros will mix more paint and the JPCA plans to finish the job before the Christmas.

Anyone wishing to volunteer for the next painting can do so by contacting the Juniper Park Civic Association by phone: 718-651-5865, by email: info@junipercivic.com or sign-up at the JPCA Town Meeting on Thursday, December 10th, 7:45pm at Our Lady of Hope School Auditorium, Eliot Avenue and 71st Street in Middle Village.