Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2010 Co-op City Times
Vol. 45 No. 14
Saturday, April 3, 2010
25¢
Ten pick up petitions to run for Co-op City’s high occupancy rate helps build strong the Board of Directors; Deadline financial base for submission is April 12th BY ROZAAN BOONE During the first week that qualifying petitions became available to run for the Riverbay Board of Directors, ten shareholders picked up packages for the annual election of the Riverbay Board of Directors, scheduled to be held on Wednesday, May 26th. The petition period for those who hope to qualify as a candidate began this past Monday, March 29th, and will conclude at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 12th when all signed petitions are due back to the Riverbay Legal Department, located in the Administrative building at 2049 Bartow Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. Three out of the five incumbent Board Directors who are completing their current terms on the Board this year picked up qualifying petition this week, Directors
Helen Atkins, Tony Illis and Andrea Leslie. Seven other shareholders, some of whom have run for the Board in previous years, and others who are running for the first time, also picked up petition packages this week. According to the Riverbay Legal Department, those picking up petitions as of noon Friday, in addition to Directors Atkins, Illis and Leslie, are Frank Belcher, Bruce Gitelson, Raymond Tirado, Krystal Serrano, Larry Barnard, Lauretta Jaysura and Yolanda Canales Schumann. Any cooperator in good financial standing can run for a three-year term on the Board. Seventy-five valid cooperators’ signatures are needed on candidates’ petitions in order for them to qualify to run for (Continued on page 2)
Spring clean-up to focus on overlooked areas BY BILL STUTTIG The spring spruce-up — undertaken by Riverbay each year to improve both interior and exterior site conditions battered by the long winter — will take on a new twist this year as fresh attention will be paid to a variety of areas overlooked in recent years, said Riverbay General Manager Vernon Cooper this week. Beginning this month, Cooper said, staff from the Maintenance and Buildings and Grounds Departments will begin replacing Building and Grounds staff members Pablo missing, old and inaccurate sig- Martinez and Raul Olvera prepare the flower nage throughout several buildings. beds outside Building 6 for planting later this Photo by Bill Stuttig Directional signage throughout the month. buildings will be reviewed and replaced on an as needed basis, Cooper said, as (Continued on page 2)
BY JIM ROBERTS Co-op City is not only a community,
home to the more than 50,000 people who live here and raise their families, but it’s also a business, where every shareholder has a stake in seeing that the company succeeds financially. And by one important measure, Co-op City, the business, is enjoying historic success right now, with only approximately 50 apartments vacant at any given time without a new tenant moving in/out of the 15,372 total apartments here. Another 100 apartments each month are empty, but committed to new move-ins, so while the vacancy rate is
Co-op City’s current availability rate is 1/3 of 1%, well below industry standard. Photo by Mary Ann Sowah
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Energy efficient lighting program for Co-op City’s garages expected to result in significant savings BY ROZAAN BOONE Riverbay’s management is proceeding with an energy efficient lighting program for Co-op City’s eight garages which will produce projected savings of approximately $700,000 a year to the corporation. The energy efficient lighting program may be eligible for grants from programs provided by New York State and the federal government, and if Riverbay qualifies, the contractor would be responsible for providing all of the material and manpower to complete the project before he is reimbursed by the grants, thereby resulting in no up front cost to the shareholders of Co-op City.
In a March 18th memo to the Riverbay Board, Herb Freedman, principal of Marion Scott Real Estate, Inc., Riverbay’s managing agent, wrote: “Management has been pursuing for some time an opportunity presented to us involving significant electric savings by the installation of LED and/or induction light fixtures. The federal government has spent millions testing and providing incentives for this technology.” According to Freedman, three contractors approached Riverbay with various plans, each involving installation of new energy efficient fixtures in the garages, as well as a meter to measure (Continued on page 4)