Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2011 Co-op City Times
Vol. 46 No. 24
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Chief Apollo urges residents to be thorough and patient when calling dispatchers BY BILL STUTTIG Co-op City residents who take it upon themselves to do the often heroic act of calling into the community’s Public Safety dispatchers any of a variety of conditions or situations should be commended, Chief Frank Apollo, commander of Co-op City’s Public Safety Department, said this week. “Those calls are often the first and most important step taken in saving lives or heading off potentially dangerous situations,” he said. While fully understanding the stress and urgency that callers face when making those calls, Apollo also said that callers must understand and be cognizant that whatever information they have about the situation they are reporting, no matter how insignificant or trivial it might seem at the time, has the potential to save lives. “Our dispatchers are trained professionals, just like the professionals who answer calls for the city’s ‘911’ system,” Apollo said. “It is vital to the effective performance of their potentially life saving duties that they ask the right questions and get accurate answers in order that they initiate the proper and most effective response.” “When facing these situations, it is the dispatchers’ responsibility to determine if outside agencies, such as NYPD, EMS, FDNY, or others, need to be called in. Their decision-making responsibilities have life-or-death implications and those decisions depend on the accuracy and thoroughness of the information the callers provide,” Apollo said. “We understand that calling into an emergency dispatcher is always a stressful situation and under stress the instinct of
everyone is to try to provide information as quickly as possible. But callers have to understand that those extra seconds it takes to answer each question asked by the dispatcher and to provide as thorough and accurate information as possible, can mean minutes saved in getting the proper response to the scene as effectively and quickly as possible.” Apollo added that Public Safety dispatchers answering calls and taking information are often called upon to make follow-up calls to the city’s emergency dispatchers and certain information is required by these professionals in order for them to insure effective response from the city emergency responders. “Any professional dispatcher is trained at keeping people in stressful situations calm, lucid and on the phone providing the most thorough report possible. But no matter how trained they are, the cooperation of the caller is vital to this process,” the Chief said. Apollo added that even calls that might not seem life threatening, such as noise complaints, can be handled more effectively with a complete report including the approximate exact location of where the noise in coming from, the nature of the noise, and how many people might be involved in creating the nuisance. “Noise can take many forms and come from many different types of sources,” the Chief said. “For example, the response to a loud domestic argument emanating from an apartment is very different than the proper response to a noisy group congregating in front of the building. Effective
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Atkins re-elected Board President; newly elected Directors sworn in BY BILL STUTTIG In one of the closest votes in recent memory, Helen Atkins was re-elected by her fellow Board Directors to serve as the Riverbay Board President for a second consecuHelen Atkins tive year. The Board voted 8 to 7 to re-elect Atkins over the other nominee, Director Evelyn Santiago, during an open Board meeting held Thursday evening at the Bartow Community Center The election for the key position of President which oversees the setting of the Board’s agenda for the next 12 months and presides over each Board meeting, came down to a final vote by newly elected Director Tony Illis to break a 7 to 7 tie. Illis, after holding his vote to the end, to the surprise of many, voted for Atkins for President over Santiago. "Anybody who really knows me knows that I'm independent and fight for what I
think is the right thing for Co-op City," Illis said. "During the recent election campaign, I encouraged shareholders to vote for the best candidates and that's what I did in the vote for president. I ran for change and people will see change. I’m glad to see that we had younger participants this year in the Board election, including Leah Graham and Daryl Johnson, who were elected. Hopefully, this will encourage others to get involved in upcoming Board elections.” Atkins was nominated by the newly reelected Director and top vote getter, Rev. Dr. Calvin E. Owens. "I'm happy Helen Atkins will serve another term as President," said Rev. Owens. "I have the utmost respect for Helen's commitment to do what's best for Co-op City, based on her years of involvement in community affairs, both on and off the Riverbay Board. I'm hopeful this Board can unite under Helen's leadership and we can proceed in a mature and responsible manner to set policy for Riverbay management." Joining Owens and Illis in supporting (Continued on page 2)
Riverbay Summer Youth Lottery Riverbay Corporation is currently accepting applications for its annual Summer Youth Lottery from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. weekdays through Wednesday, June 22. High school and college students who are the children of shareholders or shareholders of Co-op City can fill out applications at the Riverbay Administrative Office located at 2049 Bartow Avenue, Bronx, NY 10475. Stu dent s mu st a pp ly in per son.
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Follow-up meeting with city agencies set for Monday BY BILL STUTTIG Co-op City General Manager Vernon Cooper and several operational department directors will join City Councilman Larry Seabrook and State Assemblyman Mike Benedetto in a closed meeting with representatives of several city and state agencies responsible for the proper maintenance of government properties surrounding the community. This meeting, scheduled for Monday, will be a follow-up to one held on April 27th at which the elected officials and Riverbay presented the agency representatives with photographs documenting many of the unsightly and dangerous conditions surrounding the community that government agencies are responsible to correct and maintain.
Cooper and Seabrook both said that at Monday’s meeting, they expect the representatives to report on actions taken in the past month to correct many of the conditions brought to their attention or at least provide a schedule as to when the conditions will be corrected in the near future. These conditions include broken fences and gates, littered bus stops, unpainted street markings, unkempt street medians, neglected vacant lots, broken and missing storm drains, and deteriorating safety barriers. Agencies expected to take part include the New York City Departments of Transportation, Sanitation, Parks, and Environmental Protection. A full report on the meeting will be published in next week’s Co-op City Times.
Keeping in Step…Students from the line dancing program at the Dreiser Senior Center strut their stuff for fellow center members as part of a Senior Activity and Fashion Show performed Monday in the Dreiser auditorium. “This is the first time we did this and we wanted to show the people in Co-op City what we in JASA have to offer as far as the variety of activities available here. Staying active and alert is what keeps you young,” said the center’s activity coordinator Gay Brown. Besides the youthful dance steps, the presentation highlighted fashions created by the seniors, comedy skits performed by the actors in the drama program, martial arts techniques, horticultural creations and crafts created by the many seniors who come to the center daily. After the center was nearly closed due to city budget cuts just a year ago, Brown said she thought it was important to show just how vital and vibrant the program is. Photo by Bill Stuttig