Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2011 Co-op City Times
Vol. 46 No. 43
Saturday, October 22, 2011
25¢
Co-op City’s monthly Con Edison Hearings into closing of bill reaches new low in August Co-op City Post offices scheduled BY BILL STUTTIG by more than 90% from $1.9 million in for November 1st and 2nd Co-op City’s bill from Con Edison for December 2009, to just $176,000 for the BY BILL STUTTIG Co-op City residents will get their chance to voice directly to Postal service officials their opposition to plans to close Co-op City’s two satellite Posts Offices in Dreiser and Einstein Community Center. Two hearings are scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. on November 1st at the Dreiser Community Center auditorium and 6 to 8 p.m., November 2nd in Room 45 of the Einstein Community Center. The first hearing will be to specifically address the closing of the Dreiser office and the second to address the closing of the Einstein office although the issues concerning the closing of either post office are very much the same. Hearings are set in each community affected by the 15 post offices proposed to be closed in the Bronx, which include the two in Co-op City. A representative of the Bronx Postmaster’s office said that residents who wish to speak can sign-up the evening at the hearing. No pre-registration is necessary. The Postal Service’s plans to close the two Co-op City locations, along with approximately 3700 other Post Offices
throughout the Untied States, was announced in July. “Today, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service’s retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, retail chains, self-service kiosks, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahue at the time of the announced closings. “Our customer’s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.” Postal Service officials said in the summer that the agency will document the workload in each location and hold meetings with communities to look for alternatives before any final decisions are made. No dates were announced as to when a final decision on closings will be made. “As part of the process, the community will be given the opportunity to provide feedback via a survey and attend a public meeting regarding the possible discontinuance,” Darleen Reid, a USPS spokesperson, said in July. (Continued on page 2)
Co-op City resident partners with Share Our Shoes to bring massive shoe drive to Co-op City BY ROZAAN BOONE Share Our Shoes (SOS), a North Carolina based not-for-profit shoe charity, is hoping that Co-op City residents will clean out their closets and help fellow shareholder Evelyn Turner to fill a truck with new or gently used shoes on November 12 when the organization stops throughout the development as a result of the outreach efforts of Ms. Turner. The shoes collected in Co-op City will be sent to Haiti and other parts of the world, including right here in the United States, where natural disasters and fires have displaced people and destroyed their personal belongings, as well as to those who simply cannot afford to purchase shoes for themselves and their families. Ms. Turner, a Co-op City resident and social worker by profession who is originally from North Carolina, became aware of the efforts of SOS and its founder, Jennifer Pierce, when she read an article in a newspaper that she subscribes to from the Raleigh-Durham area. After reading the article, she called Ms. Pierce and subsequently visited SOS. “Jennifer told me that she started the organization when one of her daughter’s
friends who lived right across the street could not come over to her house to play because she did not have shoes to wear,” said Turner. “Her daughter took a pair of her shoes out of her closet and asked if she could share it with her friend and that’s how she got the idea for this organization which she started in the basement of her home.” Turner shared with Pierce during her visit to Raleigh, N.C. that she lives in Coop City, a city within a city. “I told her I’m sure my community could share their shoes and I made a commitment to approach our Board of Directors to start a shoe drive as a community service project,” said Turner. “I simply had to get involved. As a social worker, my mission is to help others for the rest of my life. That’s what I’m most passionate about.” Turner, a resident of Building 35, spoke to Riverbay Board Director Bill Gordon who is also president of her building association and he advised her to contact Michelle Sajous, Riverbay’s Director of Community Relations. After Turner’s (Continued on page 4)
electrical usage by the community in August reached a new low for recent years, according to figures released by Riverbay’s Finance Department this week. For the period beginning August 3, 2011 and ending September 1st, 2011, Con Edison billed Riverbay $175,921 for electricity supplied by the utility, down from $341,687 just the month before and, much more significantly, down by more than a million dollars from monthly bills received by Riverbay from Con Edison just nine months ago. For the month of December, 2010, Riverbay was billed and paid more than $1.5 million for usage of power supplied by the utility that month. For December 2009, the bill was even more, nearly $1.9 million, meaning that in just 20 months, Rivebay has reduced its Con Edison bill
month of August this year. Prior to August, from March of this year to July, Con Edison’s bills were approximately $300,000 on average. The mild temperatures of this past August, with no significant heat waves as compared to July, might have something to do with the historically low usage, but Brian Reardon, Riverbay’s Power Plant Director, said this week that it is more likely due to the plant’s more efficient operation as staff becomes more familiar with the co-generation equipment and producing the community’s own power more efficiently. “We are never going to reach the point when we owe nothing to Con Edison, because we will always have them as a (Continued on page 5)
Procedural changes to air monitoring/ flooring replacement lessens inconvenience to shareholders Although our battle to be able to terminate the asbestos abatement program altogether continues, as we’ve previously reported, we continually strive to receive variances that will make the asbestos abatement process less restricting which saves the housing company time and money. That being said, we were recent-
ly successful in getting a variance which enables us to have an independent air monitoring company take air samples once, as opposed to four times as was required previously. The City of New York’s Department (Continued on page 6)
Pink and Proud...Students, teachers, administrators and parents from P.S. 153 stand proudly beside a chart showing how the school raised more than $4200 this month in the fight against breast cancer as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Teacher and campaign coordinator Miss Williams explained that many in the P.S. 153 family have been affected by the disease in recent years and the annual campaign is the school’s way to fight back and support women from the Bronx currently fighting breast cancer and all Bronx women in getting the examinations required to detect the disease at its earliest, most curable stages. Miss Williams explained that all the money raised will go directly to helping women from the Bronx, including helping women who can’t afford it receive their annual mammograms. P.S. 153 Principal Virginia Goka said, “I am extremely proud of the students and staff of P.S. 153 for the great work they have done in supporting the cause of breast cancer awareness. We are hoping this money will help research finally find a cure for this disease.” Photo by Bill Stuttig