Co-op City Times 06/15/13

Page 1

Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community.

Vol. 48 No. 24

© Copyright 2013 Co-op City Times

Public Safety begins training 22 new officers to be deployed in August The Department of Public Safety this week began training 22 new recruits who are expected to join the force in August at the conclusion of the nine week training program. Chief Frank Apollo, Commanding Officer of Public Safety, said this week that the 22 new officers will replace officers who have left the 100-officer force over the last 18 months. These are the first new recruits to be BY BILL STUTTIG

hired and trained since August of 2012. Apollo said the force lost approximately 10 officers to other law enforcement jobs or retirement over the last year, a 10% rate of attrition that is normal among most police forces, but something that still needs to be paid attention to and addressed if the community is going to retain its full complement of officers. The 22 new officers will bring the force (Continued on page 4)

Lt. James Keappock, Public Safety’s Training Director, leads a classroom session during the first week of a nine-week training program for 22 new officers. Photo by Bill Stuttig

Maintenance work begins in Garage 8 Tuesday

On Monday, June 17, parking on the roof of Garage 8 will be suspended starting at 8 a.m. in preparation for maintenance work which will be starting on Tuesday, June 18. (Please see this week’s Management Report on page 5.) The roof will remain closed for approximately 3 weeks and after it is completed, work will progress down to the lower levels until the entire garage is addressed. Riverbay will assist shareholders displaced by these closures to find alternate

As Transit Authority acknowledges July MTA Board meeting is crucial, Co-op City leaders determined to continue ongoing bus service campaign

Saturday, June 15, 2013

parking. If you have a problem finding a parking space, please let the garage attendant know so someone can assist you. Section 5 shareholders who do not utilize their vehicle on a regular basis may park in Garage 5 at a discounted rate of $33.12 until work is completed in Garage 8. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we work to restore and enhance your parking facilities. —Riverbay Management

BY BILL STUTTIG A coalition of leaders from various Co-op City community and political organizations will meet later this month to forge further plans for the ongoing campaign to pressure the MTA to restore Co-op City’s bus service to pre-2010 levels. Dozens of leaders throughout Co-op City were sent invitations to a meeting planned for later this month at which local elected officials and/or their representatives will join the community leaders in discussing plans for the continuation of the community-wide campaign, including ongoing planning for widespread Co-op City participation at a massive rally in midtown Manhattan on July 24th to convince the MTA Board to vote to restore much of the service cuts enacted in June of 2010. In the meantime, Co-op City’s State Assemblyman Mike Benedetto recently received a letter from the New York City Transit Authority’s Acting President in which it was expressly acknowledged to him that July is likely the crucial time for the MTA to decide which, if any, of the 2010 transit service cuts will be restored. Earlier this year, the New York State Legislature voted to increase the MTA’s annual $4 billion budget allocation from the state by $358 million which included an additional $40 million increase that the MTA neither asked for nor reportedly expected. With these additional monies, plus a reported increase in the MTA’s revenues due to the recent across-the-board fare

25¢

and toll increases, in addition to the new policy to charge additional fees for MetroCard replacements, the days of the MTA’s claimed financial shortfalls are believed to be over and communities like Co-op City and dozens more throughout the city are increasing the pressure to have the MTA restore the lost service. Helping to organize these communities to put up a united effort in petitioning for the restoration of service is the Transport Workers Union Local 100 which sees the potential increase in service as not only a benefit to the communities the drivers and other workers serve on a daily basis, but also a means for increasing the number of union jobs throughout the city and region. Nowhere is the effort more apparent than in Co-op City where two townhall meetings held on May 29th drew more than a thousand residents combined, with many expressing the hardships they have endured since the cuts took effect in June of 2010. The meeting also drew leading city officials and Mayoral candidates, including New York City Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio and Comproller John Liu, both of whom maintained that the time for the MTA’s supposed claims of poverty have run out and now it is up to the massive agency to do the right thing and restore much, if not all, of the service that was cut three years ago. Another Mayoral candidate, former (Continued on page 2)

Work underway in Buildings 1-6 to install outlets, smoke detectors BY JIM ROBERTS Work has begun on the safety upgrades to install new electrical outlets and smoke detectors in every apartment in Co-op City. The safety upgrades are being done as part of the federal guarantee of Co-op City’s $621 million mortgage that was accomplished last November. The mortgage refinancing with Wells Fargo bank, guaranteed by the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department, will save the community millions of dollars

in interest payments over the next 35 years. A team of two workers will do the upgrades in each apartment, one from the electrical contractor, Southside Electric, Inc., and the other, a Riverbay employee. The workers will have identification tags and should take about an hour. The front door of each apartment will also be painted and a visual inspection for asbestos will be completed. The upgrades began last week in (Continued on page 4)

Gang Prevention Workshop…Lt. James Torres (l.) and Officer Burgess of the

NYPD’s Community Affairs Division lead a gang awareness workshop for parents and teens from Co-op City this past Thursday evening. The program was hosted by the Riverbay Department of Public Safety as a means of making parents and teens aware of the dangers of young gang membership and the latest recruitment techniques employed by gang leaders, including the use of popular social media websites to lure impressionable young people into their inescapable web of crime and violence.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.