Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2011 Co-op City Times
Vol. 46 No. 10
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Zero tolerance for graffiti: Management offers $100 reward for information leading to arrests BY BILL STUTTIG With graffiti sightings on the increase in the community over the past several weeks, Riverbay management has launched an anti-graffiti initiative designed to clean up the defacing marks while capturing those responsible for the vandalism as quickly as possible. Management has announced they will offer $100 rewards to shareholders who report information leading to the arrest of vandals responsible for defacing the community’s property with graffiti. Riverbay General Manager Vernon Cooper explained this week: “We are experiencing an increase in the amount of graffiti-related vandalism throughout the development. These markings are cropping up in the stairwells and public hallways of the high rise buildings; in some cases, there are markings outside of the buildings, on the exterior brick facade in areas like the porticos and even in the play grounds. A long time ago, we established a procedure for reporting and removing these markings immediately, as they are unsightly, are in violation of the lease agreement between Riverbay and the residents of this community and result in the
housing company spending a lot of money in labor and materials to constantly remove these markings and restore surfaces as needed. “Unfortunately, we are seeing graffiti at an alarming rate, and in all sections. While we continue to remove as quickly as possible, we have not found and no one has reported the guilty culprits for this activity. Therefore, we are ready to take this situation to the next level. We are declaring a zero tolerance towards graffiti; not only will we hold cooperators monetarily responsible for the vandalism caused by their family members, we will also start holdover proceeding against them in housing court as undesirable cooperators,” the General Manager said. “However, we need your help; we need cooperators to report seeing anyone vandalize the property. If you are concerned about giving your name, we would welcome information given to us anonymously as well. In fact, based upon management’s request, the Board president, Ms. Helen Atkins, has given the approval to offer a $100 reward to those that provide (Continued on page 4)
Cogeneration savings help pay for ongoing capital projects BY JIM ROBERTS Co-op City’s cogeneration plant, which now produces almost all of the community’s energy needs, has saved shareholders $20.2 million since the plant went online in April 2009. And that $20.2 million – which would have gone to Con Edison to pay electricity bills – has helped to pay for thousands of windows and terrace doors and balcony repairs over the past two years as part of the community’s massive rebuilding project. Out of the total cogeneration savings, $6.6 million helped pay for new energyefficient windows in Buildings 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 30 and another $8.8 million paid for Local Law 11 repairs to balconies in many Co-op City buildings. Another $4.8 million of the energy savings from the community’s cogeneration plant were used to finish its construction. The cogeneration plant savings are now helping to fund the ongoing work throughout the community. Riverbay Corporation is spending $300,000 per month on new windows and $400,000 per month on balconies and brick work repair. Plans for the future call for another 25,236 windows and 972 doors to be installed in the seven remaining buildings
in the coming years. Co-op City’s new energy-efficient windows eliminate the water and cold air penetration that occurred in the 40-year-old windows they replace and create a tight seal in the buildings, reducing the waste of energy that happened for many years. “These windows conserve energy because they minimize the transfer of temperature between the outside and the inside,” said Liviu Zalman of the Riverbay Construction Department. “On a windy day, people had to put towels in the lower and upper sashes to seal the old windows. These new double-pane windows have a much better resistance to the high winds that occur on the upper floors of the buildings here.” The Local Law 11 work to restore the exterior brick walls and concrete surface at the terraces must be done as mandated by the City of New York and failure to do so on the part of the housing company will result in hefty fines from the City of New York’s Department of Buildings. That new work still to be done will be paid for in part by cogeneration savings money and also with surplus funds that (Continued on page 5)
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Board approves 2011 Riverbay Board Election Rules and Schedule BY ROZAAN BOONE The Riverbay Board voted on February 23rd to approve Resolution 11-16 setting the date of this year’s annual shareholders meeting, in accordance with the Riverbay Corporation By-Laws, Article II, Section 1, which stipulates that the meeting be held in the month of May on a date set by the Board of Directors. The annual shareholders meeting, generally known as the date of the Riverbay Board election, will be held on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, according to emergency resolution 10-16, which was submitted by Board Director Bill Gordon and seconded by Directors Othelia Jones and Francine Reva Jones. The resolution was also supported by Board President Helen Atkins, Directors Eleanor Bailey, Raymond Tirado, Manny Torres and Khalil Abdul-Wahhab. Director Andrea Leslie voted no and Director Bernard
Cylich abstained. Directors Leticia Morales, Rev. Calvin E. Owens, Jose Rodriguez, Evelyn Santiago and Al Shapiro were absent. The resolution also included the approval of the 2011 election rules and schedule detailing the events during the election period which will begin on Monday, March 14 when prospective candidates can pick up their qualifying petition packages from Riverbay. The petition period will end on Monday, March 28 and the candidates who have been certified as qualified to run in the 2011 Board election will be announced at the Candidates’ Meeting which will be held on Tuesday, April 12, at 8 p.m. in Room 31 of the Bartow Community Center, 2049 Bartow Avenue. The official listing of candidates will be (Continued on page 12)
Riverbay wins appeal over possession of Little Yellow Schoolhouse BY BILL STUTTIG A nearly three-year legal battle to win back the community’s control of the Yellow Schoolhouse has apparently resulted in victory as Riverbay received word this week that a panel of three judges comprising the First Department of the Appellate Term of the Supreme
Court has ruled that the original court decision to have the Gloria Wise Community Center evicted from the premises was correctly concluded. The decision upholds the original ruling by Civil Court Judge Raul Cruz (Continued on page 4)
Plumbing upgrade to improve laundry service moves on to Building 10 and 11 this week BY ROZAAN BOONE Upgrade work to the plumbing system to improve laundry service in the triple core buildings will begin in Building 10 on Monday and move on to Building 11 on Wednesday. The upgrade work, which will help to prevent water from backing up into the drain lines on the washers during the rinse cycle, began in Building 4 on February 22 and so far, along with that building, Building 5 has also been completed. “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,” General Manager Vernon Cooper reported recently. Coinmach, the laundry vendor, has
been 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 volume 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 (Continued on page 5)