Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2014 Co-op City Times
Vol. 49 No. 9
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Hazel Dukes honored at Diaz’s Black History Celebration in Co-op City One of the nation’s most renowned civil rights activists over the last half decade, Hazel Dukes, the current and long-standing president of the New York State Conference of the NAACP, was one of the featured honorees at the Black History Month luncheon and celebration hosted by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. Thursday afternoon in Co-op City’s Dreiser Auditorium. Aside from Dukes, other BY BILL STUTTIG
honorees included Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237 and Marsha D. Michael of Esquire Magazine. This year marked the second consecutive year that Borough President Diaz chose Co-op City as the host site for his annual Black History Month Celebration of African-American Culture throughout history and in the Bronx, in particular. (Continued on page 4)
Greeting NAACP New York State Conference President Hazel Dukes (2nd from right) at Thursday’s Black History Month celebration were (l. to r) Jerome Rice, President of the Co-op City Chapter of the NAACP, Co-op City General Manager Vernon Cooper and Riverbay Board President Bill Gordon. Photo by Bill Stuttig
Public Safety and CERT to stage mock emergency drill in Section 5 on Friday To better evaluate and improve on a series of procedures put into place to help Co-op City get through any of a number of potential emergency scenarios as safely as possible, Co-op City’s Public Safety Department, together with the volunteer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), will stage a mock emergency drill in Section 5 next Friday evening. Beginning at approximately 6 p.m. that evening, the 25 active members of Community Board 10’s CERT will receive a call to report to Public Safety headquarters and then receive specific instructions for handling an ongoing emergency in Section 5. According to Public Safety’s Chief Frank Apollo, the mock emergency – in this case a power failure affects Co-op City – will only be staged and hypothetical and no real consequences will be felt by the residents of Section 5 who will be free to go about their normal business while the drill is ongoing. But residents will be notified of the drill and told they may notice CERT members wearing bright emergency vests and helmets stationed at various locations around Section 5 carrying out certain assigned duties related to the drill. BY BILL STUTTIG
Residents will be advised not to be alarmed by the unusual activity, but to just go about their activities as they would on any normal evening. Khalil Abdul-Wahhab, captain of Co-op City’s CERT since its inception in 2010, said that next Friday’s drill will be the first practice session for a series of procedures designed by both Public Safety and CERT team members at a number of table top sessions jointly held by the two emergency response organizations over the past two years. Abdul-Wahhab, who is also First Vice President of Riverbay’s Board of Directors, said: “This is a wonderful thing that we came together to improve emergency preparedness and the overall security of the community in the case of any of a number of emergencies. I am happy that we have reached this point in being able to work together in an actual drill to test and improve the quality of overall emergency response here in Co-op City.” The CERT or Community Emergency Response Team is a program of the city’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) where volunteers within a particular Community Board district, in this (Continued on page 11)
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Riverbay wins challenge of NYC water bill, will seek more refunds Pursuing the long and complicated process of reversing billing errors by the New York City Water Department is paying off for Co-op City shareholders as Riverbay Corp. has won hundreds of thousands of dollars in credits from the city. And in order to prevent the same over-billing from happening in the future, Riverbay will seek to enter a city program that eliminates over-estimating of water charges, saving potentially millions more in possible overcharges. In a letter last month, a deputy commissioner from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection wrote that the department “… determined that a partial adjustment was required” based on an appeal of overcharged water bills submitted at Riverbay’s request by its representative, American Utility Consultants. In its argument to the Water Department, American Utility convinced the city that the bills were inflated due to “… a grossly overestimated rate of usage due to the misreading of the meter” by the city. BY JIM ROBERTS
American Utility is continuing to pursue this appeal because the city did not explain why it credited only half of the billing period in dispute and hopes to recover even more overcharges. “The $400,000 refund we obtained was due to the cancellation of a series of grossly over-estimated bills that DEP had based on an earlier misreading,” said Michael Lockhart, President of American Utility. “DEP failed to take actual readings for several years and that one misreading triggered several years of subsequent overcharges. “Although we are pleased with the $400,000 refund, we are still trying to secure additional refunds that go back even further than DEP granted. We are working on an appeal now and hope to have this resolved successfully within the next few months,” Lockhart said. The city agency said in its letter that it will credit Riverbay with $399,762 to its water bill accounts to repay Co-op City for the past amount of over billing. American Utility, which is paid only when it recovers money for its client, (Continued on page 2)
Riverbay General Counsel responds to claims of alleged misuse of stimulus funds
Riverbay’s General Counsel issued the following statement in response to a news item appearing in this week’s City News: “The Riverbay Fund properly obtained a grant to promote energy conservation at Co-op City, to educate the community on the benefits of energy efficiency, and to assist in the preservation of affordable housing by lowering operating expenses of Co-op City.” —Jeffrey D. Buss
Public Safety Tactics Training – The latest graduated class of new Public Safety offi-
cers underwent additional firearms and tactics training recently which included instruction on the proper technique for taking a suspect into custody. The training included approaching suspects, armed and unarmed, proper challenging, moving in and around buildings and hallways, and entering apartments. Additional classroom instruction was provided of the use of physical and deadly force. All officers are required to pass a qualifying course of instruction on the use of a weapon which includes firearms safety and proficiency with live fire. Photo by Bill Stuttig