Co-op City Times 01/24/09

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Co-op City Times / January 24, 2009

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Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2009 Co-op City Times

Vol. 45 No. 4

Saturday, January 24, 2009

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Co-op City comes together to watch the Inauguration of Barack Obama BY BILL STUTTIG More than 600 Co-op City residents jammed into the Dreiser auditorium Tuesday morning to watch Barack

arrival at the Capitol of President-elect Barack Obama and other dignitaries and ending with the musical, poetic and prosaic tributes to the new President following

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Co-op City residents, watching the inauguration together in Dreiser auditorium, cheer wildly as Barack Obama is sworn-in as the nation’s President. Photo by Bill Stuttig

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Obama, the first African-American President in the nation’s history, be sworn into office. Courtesy of State Assemblyman Mike Benedetto and Congressman Joseph Crowley, residents were treated to coffee, cake and donuts as they watched the morning’s festivities beginning with the

his inauguration speech which electrified the entire nation, including the more than 600 people in Dreiser Community Center. “This is a very historic moment,” said Co-op City resident Leslie Peterson. “One of the most prolific things that I heard him (Continued on page 3)

New shareholders may qualify for first-time homebuyer credit BY BILL STUTTIG Co-op City residents who bought their apartment after April 8th, 2008, may qualify for a new tax credit being made available by the federal government through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Called the first time homebuyer credit, it allows new home buyers to declare a tax credit of up to 10% of the value of their purchase up to a value of $7500. Riverbay’s Director of Finance, Peter Merola, explained that in the case of Co-op City, where purchase values are between $10,500 for the smallest available home, 3 rooms, or $22,750 for the largest apartment available to new shareholders, 6½ rooms, the amount of credit that can be claimed ranges from $1,050 to $2,275. Merola explained that the credit is only available to shareholders whose purchase of an apartment here represents their very

first home purchase. Residents who likely will qualify include families who have moved here after previously renting an apartment elsewhere or young people who purchased here after moving from their family’s home for the first time. Merola strongly advised shareholders to consult with their certified tax preparer before filing for the credit. According to the website asktaxguru.com, in order to qualify for the credit, the homebuyer must not have owned a principal residence in the United States in the previous three years. You can also not claim the credit if you do not use your Coop City apartment as your principal residence or if your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $95,000 or $170,000, if you are a married couple filing jointly. (Continued on page 4)

Riverbay receives over $400,000 for its ability to shed load during energy emergencies BY ROZAAN BOONE Riverbay Corporation recently received more than $477,000 for its ability to shed load both from the New York Independent Systems Operator (NYISO) and from Con Edison’s Distribution Load Relief Program (DLRP). The two payments, which total $477,144.98, were received from CPower, formerly known as ConsumerPowerline, which contracted with Riverbay as an energy management and demand response provider to determine and actualize the maximum profitability out of the cogeneration plant. The payments are for Riverbay’s share of earnings from NYISO and Con Edison for the summer of 2008 which included the months of May through October of last year. “These two checks are exceptionally high for two reasons,” said Amihai BenHorin, Senior Account Manager for

CPower. “First, even though prices dropped significantly in comparison to previous summers by approximately fifty percent, we were able to mitigate this by committing an additional Riverbay resource to make up for the pricing drop and ensure the high payment. The second reason is that we put Co-op City in two programs—one with the state and the other with the utility, Con Edison—so that these load shedding programs run in parallel to each other, resulting in more savings for the community.” Brian Reardon, Director of Riverbay’s Power Plant, confirmed that there was one Con Edison load shedding event this past summer and one NYISO event which culminated in the payments that Riverbay received recently. He said that basically, Riverbay has agreed to shed certain load items that are (Continued on page 2)

Information sessions this week to answer MATV questions and concerns about digital switchover. See page 4.

Open Board meeting to be held Wednesday at Einstein Community Center BY ROZAAN BOONE An Open Board meeting will be held this Wednesday, January 28, at 7 p.m. in Room 45 of the Einstein Community Center where the new supervising engineer overseeing the Riverbay co-generation plant will update the Riverbay Board and community residents on the progress of the project. William May, a distinguished independent energy engineering consultant with more than 30 years experience, has been working on the Riverbay co-generation project for approximately one month now. He told the Co-op City Times in a recent interview, “I love this project because it was configured and built to meet the very specific, special needs of the community and it has done that extremely well. It is really a model for the rest of the industry because it

is tailored so well to provide exactly what the community wants and needs.” May was hired to oversee the cogeneration plant’s commissioning process and to ensure that all obstacles are expertly navigated so as to decrease the chances of further delays in the plant going online. “I fully understand the frustrations within this community to have the plant operating,” May said, “but expectations for the project’s start-up were just too early. When you are interconnecting an existing facility with major new components, you are always going to encounter unforeseen circumstances and it takes time to work through all these problems that are inevitable with any project of this size.” William May, owner of Durfee Landing (Continued on page 2)


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