The Manhattan Times

From April 6-22, New York City public school parents will have the opportunity to vote online for their Community Education Council (CEC) representatives. CECs, which replaced school boards, are elected parent bodies that work with the Department of Education to determine education policy in each of the city’s 32 school districts. According to a DOE release, this will be the first exclusively online election in the nation.

The April vote is only advisory. In May, the leadership of every parents association will make the final selections, and are expected to take the results of the first vote into consideration.

To learn how to vote, visit www.powertotheparents.org or call the Office for Family Engagement and Advocacy at 212-374-2323 or 1-877- NYC-VOTE.

Christopher Buxo of 65 Post Ave. has been charged in a series of arsons, allegedly setting fire to an apartment lobby and four cars on the Upper West Side between Feb. 2 and Feb. 19, according to the Manhattan district attorney. Buxo, 54, is also charged with possessing loaded weapons.

Police said Buxo set fire to a bookcase in the lobby of 66 W. 69th St. using an accelerant that was extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system and responding Fire Department personnel.

The indictment alleges that Buxo left numerous handwritten notes on the scene. Two days later, police believe Buxo started the first of four separate car fires. The first was on Central Park West at W. 91st Street, the second on Broadway and W. 87th Street on Feb. 11, followed by two others in the same area.

Again, an accelerant was used in each of the early morning car fires, all of the vehicles were completely destroyed and handwritten notes similar to those found at the apartment building fire were left near some of the car arson scenes, according the district attorney.

Buxo was arrested soon after he stopped near an unmarked police car at Central Park West and W. 83rd Street, where police orchestrated an operation to catch him. At the time of his arrest, Buxo was holding a leather bag, which contained a hammer, a glass bottle full of gasoline and more handwritten notes, said the police, and was found in possession of a large kitchen knife and a loaded .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol with an additional loaded clip. A sawed-off shotgun with ammunition, over 200 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition, a bottle of gasoline, a day planner and calendar noting the date and time of each fire were also recovered during a court-authorized search warrant of Buxo’s apartment.

A new online system for developers to submit required documents to the city will make it simpler for builders to file paperwork and easier for residents to learn what’s happening in their neighborhoods. On March 30, the city’s buildings commissioner Robert LiMandri announced the launch of eSubmit, which cuts the wait time for building permit applicants by enabling them to electronically submit certain documents from their home or office.

Approved documents will be made available online in BISWeb, the department’s online property database available at www.nyc.gov/buildings.

Ten students from Gregorio Luperon High School will spend two weeks in Holland thanks to a $5,000 donation from P/A Associates, which is working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to redevelop the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal. City Council Member Miguel Martinez brokered the arrangement between the students and developer to cover the students’ traveling expenses.

“We are very grateful to Council Member Miguel Martinez for when we visited his

offices. [Martinez] opened his doors to us and when we asked for his support he made it happen,” said student Yelfri De Leon.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “In the Heights” which won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical for its recreation of life on W. 181st Street, has been named as one of Crain’s “40 under 40 New York’s Rising Stars.” The Inwood native is the son of Manhattan Times publisher Luis Miranda.