Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2010 Co-op City Times
Vol. 45 No. 18
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Board election in progress: 1st Candidates’ Forum in two weeks BY ROZAAN BOONE The first of two official Candidates’ Forums for the 2010 Riverbay Board of Directors election will be held on Wednesday, May 12, 7:30 p.m., in the Dreiser Community Center Auditorium B and all fifteen candidates running in this year’s Board election have been invited to attend. A second forum is scheduled for Monday, May 17, also at 7:30 p.m., in Room 45 at the Einstein Community Center. “Two official Candidates’ Forums have again been scheduled this year to offer as many residents as possible the opportunity to attend and hear from the candidates running in this year’s Board election,” said Director Bill Gordon, Chair of the 2010 Election Committee. “It is equally important that all candidates make every effort to
attend these forums.” The 2010 Election rules stipulate that if a candidate cannot attend the forum, he or she can provide the Election Committee with a reason why and, with the permission of the candidate, the Chair of the Election Committee may announce that reason to the attendees of the forum. To publicize the Candidates’ Forums, prominent notices will be placed throughout the community as a reminder to shareholders of the events and their importance. In addition, according to the election rules and regulations governing campaign conduct, candidates are not allowed to post campaign signs, posters, gummed stickers and other campaign material in Co-op City (Continued on page 2)
Emergency call boxes being placed near townhouse clusters BY BILL STUTTIG in an officer sent to that location. After hearing many complaints from “Installing call boxes at the townhouse townhouse residents that they did not have clusters throughout the development has the benefits of the same security measures always been a long-term goal, said as building residents, the Department of Riverbay General Manager Vernon Public Safety has started installing emerCooper. “In fact, the first call box was gency call boxes in the courtyards of all townhouse clusters. Rick Schmidt, Riverbay’s Technical Services Manager, installed the first box at the south end of the Broun Place townhouse cluster earlier this month and emergency boxes are scheduled to be installed in each of the other clusters in the coming months beginning next with Asch Loop and Earhardt Loop. The emergency call boxes are similar to those installed in each of the building lobbies. Shareholders who sense danger Lazaar, President of the Broun Place Townhouse or suspicious behavior in the Eva Association, said the call boxes may help alleviate area need only hit the red but- some of the security concerns that are unique to the Photo by Bill Stuttig ton on the call box and the townhouse clusters. Public Safety dispatchers will be alerted to the location of the call and dispatch installed in 2005 at the Cooper Place officers there immediately. The sharetownhouse cluster. I believe that the call holder pushing the emergency button can boxes represent an increased level of speak to the dispatcher directly through security by virtue of the fact that individan intercom if he or she chooses to, but in uals will be able to reach Public Safety a case where the caller does not want to expeditiously from these locations, 24 call attention to him or herself, simply (Continued on page 9) pushing the emergency button will result
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Co-op City residents petition MTA about bus service cuts BY BILL STUTTIG A Co-op City-based group, the Co-op City Coalition against the MTA Cuts, visited MTA headquarters earlier this week and presented petitions signed by hundreds of residents here asking the agency to reconsider changes to Co-op City’s bus lines which many believe will make it more difficult and time-consuming to travel within the community via public transportation. The changes, which were first reported to the community by the Co-op City Times in a series of articles published in February, includes the rerouting of portions of the Bx. 26, Bx. 28 and Bx. 30three lines that take Co-op City residents to and from the west Bronx and between the different sections of this community. The proposal was given final approval by the MTA Board on March 24th, following a lengthy period of time where public comment on the proposed changes was encouraged. The vote approving the changes, which include cuts and changes to transit service affecting nearly all communities throughout New York City, is reportedly final and irrevocable.
But many Co-op City residents this past week began expressing their opposition to the cuts, albeit more than two months after the changes were first made public. A meeting on Thursday evening where unanimous opposition to the changes were expressed by a reported crowd of approximately 500 residents, community leaders and elected officials, was followed by a protest the next afternoon near the intersection of Baychester and Bartow Avenue attended by more than 50 residents, according to Algernon Quattlebaum, one of the organizers of the Coalition against the MTA cuts. The following Monday, April 26, a group of some 60 residents went down to MTA headquarters to deliver petitions gathered by the coalition’s members in recent weeks. According to Quattlebaum following the presentation of the petitions, the MTA has agreed to meet with representatives of the group in the coming days. Quattlebaum said he is presently setting (Continued on page 4)
Electrical Shutdowns next week (see page 6)
Change-over to air conditioning to begin Monday The Riverbay Power Plant’s annual spring change over from heat to air conditioning will begin on Monday, May 3rd, and is scheduled to be completed on Sunday, May 24th. During the change-over, aside from the usual tasks involved in preparing the chillers for the cooling season, significant upgrades to co-generation will be performed including a computer system upgrade which will require taking co-generation off-line for one week, from May 10th to May 17th. In addition, the high pressure steam system will receive an upgrade and cooling coils in the gas turbine duct system will be replaced. Routine maintenance that will be performed during the change-over period will
also include the cleaning of the cooling tower part which operated all winter as part of co-generation. The schedule also calls from a complete steam shutdown for one 6-to-7-hourovernight period during the second week in May to allow for needed semi-annual checks and repairs to connections. During this brief overnight period, the entire community will be without hot water service. More-than-ample notification to the exact day of time of this service interruption will be provided to allow cooperators to make changes in the schedule of the daily routines, if needed. Hot water service will be restored before dawn and the start of most shareholders’ routine preparations for the next day.