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Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community.
15 certified as candidates for 2014 Riverbay Board election
© Copyright 2014 Co-op City Times
Vol. 49 No. 16
Saturday, April 19, 2014
NYCHA managers tour Co-op City’s trash processing facility
More than two dozen managers and supervisors from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) came to Co-op City last Friday to learn and see for themselves how Co-op City efficiently handles its huge trash removal process. Barbara Turkewitz, NYCHA’s Deputy Director for Maintenance and Technical Services, led a team of approximately two dozen NYCHA property managers, finance directors, communications specialists and others, to see first hand how BY BILL STUTTIG
Co-op City has earned its reputation for efficiently removing and processing trash for pick-up. Every phase of the operation, from resident communication and cooperation to the selling of recyclable materials to help offset the costs of the operation was both explained and demonstrated during the nearly three hour visit. General Manager Vernon Cooper, Director of Operations Kevin Keenan, (Continued on page 4)
Fifteen shareholders who returned their qualifying petitions to compete in the 2014 Riverbay Board of Directors election to fill five seats were officially certified as candidates by the Riverbay Election Committee on Tuesday night, April 15, at the candidates’ certification meeting. After the candidates submitted their qualifying petitions on Monday, April 7, the end of the petition period, the signatures on the petitions were checked for their validity. The Election Committee also worked with the Riverbay Finance Department to verify that none of the potential candidates were indebted to the Riverbay Corporation. The fifteen certified candidates for BY ROZAAN BOONE
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this year’s Board election, in the order that their names will appear on the ballot on election day, Wednesday, May 21, are Dr. Amrendra Singh, Junius Williams, Rev. Calvin E. Owens, Raymond Tirado, Eleanor G. Bailey, Tony Illis, Daryl Johnson, Frank Belcher, Alonzo Newton, Lynne Brookes, Leah Graham, Sebastian Ulanga, Emmanuel Manny Torres, Cleve Taylor and Linda Berk. The official candidates include all five incumbent Directors whose terms are up this year—Eleanor Bailey, Leah Graham, Tony Illis, Daryl Johnson and Rev. Calvin E. Owens. At Tuesday’s Candidates Meeting, the qualified candidates received their
More than 1,000 homes had their convectors cleaned or repaired by Riverbay over the last month
As part of an aggressive campaign jointly launched by Riverbay’s operational departments since the beginning of March to identify and correct faulty, leaky convectors before the start of air cooling season in late May, Riverbay Director of Operations Kevin Keenan
BY BILL STUTTIG
More than 20 managers from the New York City Housing Authority visited Co-op City last Friday to observe first hand Riverbay’s operation for collecting more than 40 tons of garbage per day. Photo by Bill Stuttig
King bill seeks local control over street food vendors Co-op City’s elected representative in City Hall will introduce a bill to allow local communities some control over food vendors after residents here expressed their concerns about the sudden appearance of hot dog carts on local streets. After hearing from shareholders and officials from Riverbay, Council Member Andy King said this week that his proposed law will require licensed food vendors to win approval from the local community board before they can set up shop. Vendors would lose their community approval if their unpaid fines reach $1,000. ”When you come into a residential neighborhood like Co-op City, it has a different impact than if you go to Fifth Avenue with a lot of office buildings,” Council Member King told the Co-op BY JIM ROBERTS
City Times. “Putting a cart with aromas and fragrances and smoke in front of someone’s home will change the quality of life for the residents who live there.” King said he will seek the support of fellow Council Members to bring his bill to the floor and hopes to have the legislation move through committee hearings this summer. “I believe my colleagues on the City Council will view this as a common sense piece of legislation,” King said. “It’s just saying we have to be good neighbors. I know there are a number of communities around the city who feel the same way. It’s just that no one has acted on it yet.” Riverbay General Manager Vernon Cooper and Assistant General (Continued on page 18)
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reported this week that more than 1,000 homes have already had their convectors and condensate lines inspected, cleaned or repaired over the past five weeks and approximately 1,600 more homes are scheduled to (Continued on page 2)
Prototype storage unit … Riverbay’s Ombudsman and Assistant General
Manager Joe Boiko, along with architect Robert Stahl (r.) inspect the new prototype storage unit recently set up in the basement of Building 15A. If this unit is deemed satisfactory, Riverbay is planning to buy an additional 200 storage units to be set up in several building basements in Co-op City. The units will then be rented out to shareholders for their storage needs. This move will help to offer some space for shareholders who have spent years on the waiting list for the historically limited hall closet space in the community. Photo by Bill Stuttig