Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2011 Co-op City Times
Vol. 46 No. 8
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Black start generator positioned for hook-up at power plant
The black start generator, after being loaded onto a lowboy transport vehicle, being moved to the south gate of the Riverbay Power Plant facility.
BY BILL STUTTIG A 63,000 pound black start generator was maneuvered into its permanent home within the power plant grounds Thursday afternoon and final connections soon will be completed in the coming weeks, said Brian Reardon, Riverbay’s Power Plant Director. The massive generator serves as an insurance policy against a major regional blackout such as the one that hit the northeast in August of 2003, allowing power plant crews to restart the plant in
approximately three hours if a major shut down of the grid occurs. Reardon explained that even with Coop City’s new co-generation facility providing virtually all of the power for the community with very little reliance on outside utilities, the plant is still interconnected to the grid and as such can likely trip off should the grid suffer a major region-wide outage such as what occurred (Continued on page 5)
Plumbing upgrade to improve laundry service in triple core buildings BY ROZAAN BOONE Beginning on Tuesday, Riverbay’s laundry vendor will begin upgrading the plumbing system in the laundry rooms of the triple core buildings to help prevent water from backing up into the drain lines in the washers during the rinse cycle. “This work is an upgrade of the existing plumbing system and will help circumvent the current back ups that negatively impact on residents’ ability to use the laundry rooms because the existing plumbing lines cannot handle the volume of water that is discharged when all or most of the washers are being used simultaneously,” said General Manager Vernon Cooper. Coinmach, the laundry vendor, will begin replacing the 4-inch pipes that are currently in place behind the washers in the community’s 10 triple core buildings with 5 inch pipes which are expected to be able to accommodate the large volumes of suds and water and therefore allow the washing machines to drain quicker and easier. This work is being done by Coinmach with its own plumbers
and at no additional cost to the Riverbay Corporation or its shareholders. “The new pipes will be repitched properly to allow the drainage to be more efficient within the pipes,” said Mark Giacoia of Riverbay’s Operations Department. “The installation will take two days for each building and although this may be an inconvenience to the shareholders, it will help to circumvent the back ups in the washers.” At the request of management, work on the plumbing system will only be done on Mondays through Thursdays, not on Fridays and on the weekends when a majority of shareholders utilize the laundry rooms. On Tuesday and Wednesday, February 22 and 23, work will begin in Building 4 before the plumbers move on to Building 5 the following Monday and Tuesday, February 28 and March 1, respectively. The following week Monday and Tuesday, March 7 and 8, the upgrade will (Continued on page 5)
Riverbay Holiday closings Riverbay’s administrative offices will be closed on Monday, February 21, in observance of Presidents’ Day. Shareholders may contact their local CSO for services and the Co-op City Public Safety Department at (718) 671-3050, and 9-1-1 for emergencies. (See page 6 for Co-op City Times deadline notice.) Have an enjoyable Presidents’ Day weekend.
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Board to form Evaluation Committee for Marion Scott Real Estate in Co-op City BY DEREK ALGER Riverbay President Helen Atkins announced a decision to create a Committee to review and evaluate the performance of Marion Scott Real Estate, the managing agent in Co-op City. The decision to establish such a committee, whose members would be selected by the President, came after a resolution to move ahead and create a Search Committee seeking a minimum of three management firms or General Manager candidates was easily defeated. “To seek potential replacements for Marion Scott Real Estate at this time is putting the cart before the horse,” said Second Vice President Khalil AbdulWahhab, strongly arguing that an evaluation should take place first. “It seems that some people are hell bent on taking drastic action without first making a sensible assessment. There’s a philosopher, Seneca, who said, ‘For the sailor who has no destination, no wind is the best wind’.” Director Abdul-Wahhab continued: “Before making such a major decision to change from the present management company to either a general manager or another management company, let’s assess what it is that has been successful and what has not.” The majority of the Board at
Wednesday’s meeting agreed with Director Abdul-Wahhab, rejecting the resolution calling for the formation of an Ad Hoc Committee to search for other management firms and potential general manager candidates to manage day-to-day operations in Co-op City. Voting against the resolution, in addition to Director Abdul-Wahhab, were President Atkins, and Directors Eleanor Bailey, Bill Gordon, Al Shapiro, and Manny Torres. “We, as a Board, were elected by the shareholders of Co-op City to represent the community to the best of our ability,” Atkins said, “and not to arbitrarily propose resolutions based on what appears to be a political or personal bias. In all honesty, common sense simply doesn’t support such a resolution to action at this time.” Director Bernard Cylich and Director Andrea Leslie, who submitted and seconded the resolution calling for the formation of Ad Hoc Search Committees were the only two to vote in favor of it. Specifically, the resolution called for the Board to establish an ad-hoc committee to search for a general manager (Continued on page 2)
Hutchinson River bike path on hold pending Community Board 10 approval BY BILL STUTTIG Construction of a new bike and pedestrian path that is designed to wind its way along the Hutchinson River Parkway past Co-op City’s Section 5 over the drawbridge and into Pelham Pay Park extending as far as Orchard Beach is still on hold because the design plans presented by the Parks Department have still not met the approval of Community Board 10. Community Board 10 District Manager Ken Kearns said that the objection to the otherwise good idea centers around a potential safety issue as the proposed pathway winds around underneath the Hutchinson River Parkway drawbridge alongside a section of road known in the community as “killer curve.” The curve links the east end of Bartow Avenue to Hutchinson River Parkway East which forms the western boundary of Section 5. According to Kearns, the problem is space for the pathway that would run adjacent to the existing roadway as it runs underneath the drawbridge is very narrow and extremely close to the twolane roadway with a reputation as danger-
ous and accident prone, hence the dubious nickname. Further complicating the matter is that once the proposed pathway passes beneath the drawbridge, it is designed to go up a steep incline on the other side of the bridge before accessing the existing pedestrian walkway across the drawbridge. “Experienced bikers have told us that they are not concerned with the safety of the proposed pathway, feeling they can easily navigate the tricky ride underneath the bridge and up to the drawbridge crossing,” Kearns said. “But the problem is we can’t just concern ourselves with experienced bikers. Children and less experienced riders will be using this path along with pedestrians of all ages. We have to take into consideration everyone’s safety.” Riverbay Community Relations Director Michelle Sajous said that Riverbay officials including herself, General Manager Vernon Cooper, and Ombudsman Joe Boiko, along with Kearns and a handful of Section 5 community leaders met with (Continued on page 4)