Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2010 Co-op City Times
Vol. 45 No. 23
Saturday, June 5, 2010
25¢
Building workers strike hits Co-op City; negotiations remain stalled BY BILL STUTTIG AND ROZAAN BOONE More that 500 Co-op City workers went out on strike early Tuesday morning after Local 32BJ representatives and negotiators for Riverbay could not agree on the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement before the end of the previous CBA, May 31st. So far, as of yesterday, the strike has cost the union employees more than $400,000 in salary, approximately $80,000 a day. Nearly two hundred Co-op City’s management employees and personnel from other unions working in the development left their desks and reported to the residential buildings and grounds this week to ensure the continuation of services to cooperators during the Local 32BJ strike ongoing in the community. While the 175 management and other employees have been able to keep up with much of the cleaning in buildings and community centers this week, the major issue facing the community in the wake of the strike was the garbage bags piling up in dumpster pads as the week progressed. Riverbay’s General Manager Vernon
Riverbay employees haul garbage out of a residential building after spending hours inside sweeping and mopping the floors and cleaning the laundry rooms. Photo by Rozaan Boone
Cooper said the city’s Department of Sanitation picked up the bags left by residents early Tuesday morning before the start of the strike, but refused to collect the garbage bags after that until the city’s
Co-op City honors veterans who gave their lives in the name of freedom
Health Department inspectors declared the situation a health emergency. By Thursday, they did just that and overnight into Friday, the Sanitation Department picked up all the bags from the dumpster pads and the ones
BY BILL STUTTIG For most people in this nation and this city, Memorial Day has become a symbol of the beginning of summer – a time for parties and barbecues, ballgames and beaches. But here in Co-op City each year,
hundreds remember the real meaning of Memorial Day, to pay homage to those who gave their lives in defense of this nation’s freedoms and to support those (Continued on page 7)
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New Board Directors to be seated Wednesday; 2010/11 Board officers elected on that date BY ROZAAN BOONE
Representatives of the community’s veteran organizations place wreaths at Co-op City Veterans’ Memorial as part of the annual Memorial Day ceremony. Photo by Bill Stuttig
that remained at Riverbay’s Peartree garbage collection facility. While that was happening, Riverbay was in the process of filing the necessary paperwork with the city to begin using a private garbage carting company to collect garbage from Riverbay’s Peartree facility. Cooper said yesterday that he was working with the city’s Office of Emergency Management in an attempt to expedite the issuance of the permit which usually takes about 3 weeks and hopes to have it in hand early next week. In the meantime, Cooper said that in Buildings 1 to 14, the compactor chutes will be reopened for residents’ use and Riverbay workers will start transporting the compacted garbage to the Peartree facilities at regular intervals. Residents in Buildings 15 to 35 will continue to leave their trash in the dumpster pads and then Riverbay staff will pick-up those bags at regular intervals and transport them to the Peartree facility for processing and pickup by the carting company, which will take the refuse to a private dump until Riverbay receives the permit and can then
The 2010 Election Committee officially certified last week’s Riverbay Board election results after a recanvass of all ballots cast in the May 26th election resulted in the top five candidates holding onto their leads. The top five candidates who placed in the election will be seated on Wednesday, June 9, during an Open Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Room 31 in the Bartow Community Center and begin serving their terms as Riverbay Board Directors. On that day, the traditional election of Board officers will also take place to fill the positions of President, First, Second and Third Vice Presidents, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, Secretary and Assistant Secretary. The unofficial results in this year’s election were announced in the May 29th issue of the Co-op City Times, and based on the preliminary results that were announced after the vote tally on election night, the results showed that incumbent
Of f ic i a l 2 0 1 0 Bo a r d E le c t io n Re s u lt s Helen Atkins Bernard Cylich Andrea Leslie Evelyn Santiago Raymond Tirado Krystal Serrano Lauretta J. Jaysura Tony Illis Leah Graham Herbert Moreia-Brown Frank Belcher Yolanda Canales-Schumann Michelle S. Davy Bruce Gitelson
2,848 2,243 2,179 2,075 1,980 1,972 1,907 1,907 1,899 1,851 1,784 1,776 1,562 1,008
Board Director Helen Atkins was the top vote getter with 595 votes more than the second place winner, Bernard Cylich. Atkins scored a decisive victory with 2,797 votes, Cylich came in second with 2,202 votes, incumbent Director Andrea Leslie won third place with 2,142 votes, while another incumbent, Director (Continued on page 2)