Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2012 Co-op City Times
Vol. 47 No. 51
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Wise investments in Power Plant paying off for Co-op City BY JIM ROBERTS Six years ago, the condition of the Riverbay Power Plant could be described in one word – crumbling. Some of the major systems, still the originals from the late 1960s, were barely functioning. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent each year to rent temporary generators, and millions of dollars were needed for maintenance work just to keep the plant running. “In 2006, we had two of the original four boilers out of commission and we had the original steam turbine generator out of commission,” said Brian Reardon, Riverbay’s Power Plant Director. The failure to invest in the Power Plant over decades was creating added expenses that kept piling up, costing shareholders millions of dollars to keep the plant running. Just the constant repairs to the chillers was costing $500,000 each year. “The old running chillers were requiring expensive repairs just to maintain them,” Reardon said. “We were renting
temporary boilers in the winter as backups, we had to rent temporary generators for emergency power backups because we didn’t have a steam generator. The main cooling tower, which is where you see the steam coming out of every day, had to be overhauled because it hadn’t been touched in over 25 years.” Now Co-op City has its own 40megawatt tri-generation plant which produces all the community’s power and also can generate extra capacity for sale. No longer buying electricity from Con Edison has eliminated payments to Con Ed of more than $15 million annually. In addition to building the new tri-generation plant, Riverbay has made the necessary investments to correct the years of not spending capital funds on the plant. Carrier chillers were refurbished in 2007 and are saving close to $700,000 a year in fuel and another $1 million a year over the last five years in non-heating (Continued on page 5)
Government wants Seabrook to repay $1.1 million BY JIM ROBERTS Government attorneys told a federal judge last week that they believe convicted former City Council member Larry Seabrook should repay $1.1 million to taxpayers as restitution for “…the loss directly attributable to Larry Seabrook’s criminal conduct …” In papers filed with Judge Deborah Batts last week, the U.S. Attorney’s office said several nonprofits that the government claims Seabrook controlled were funded by New York City tax dollars primarily to benefit Seabrook and his associates. “The evidence at trial proved that every one of these expenditures occurred not because of any ability of the nonprofits to actually provide the services described
in the various contracts, but simply because Larry Seabrook wanted the money sent there to benefit his girlfriend and family members. “Numerous witnesses testified that, on contract after contract, the nonprofits failed to make anything more than a token effort toward providing the required services,” the government attorneys wrote in court papers. In the court filing, government attorneys detailed all the expenditures they claim were made to benefit Seabrook’s associates at his direction. In response to an original sentencing memorandum by the government,
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Cushman and Wakefield executive sees upside in Co-op City’s shopping centers BY BILL STUTTIG Fred Smith, a commercial real estate consultant with more than 30 years of experience in the industry, insists that Co-op City’s shopping centers are viable commercial and community resources that have the potential be so much more with the right amount of planning and investment. Smith, a Vice Chairman of Global Real Estate Services for Cushman and Wakefield, New York City’s leading commercial real estate consulting firm was contacted by Riverbay two years ago to look at Co-op City’s commercial properties to determine the best way to improve them both as community resources and as commercial entities. During a presentation that Smith made at an Open Board meeting last Wednesday,
December 12th, the second such presentation he has made to the community in the past year, Smith referred to Co-op City’s shareholders as “landlords with an ownership stake” in the financial success of the three shopping centers, who have nothing to lose and everything to gain if the three centers are improved and modernized by a developer. He said that such a plan can only greatly increase the earning potential of the centers while creating additional revenue to offset the community’s expenses and reduce carrying charges or at least minimize future increases. While some of the approximately 50 residents who attended last week’s Open (Continued on page 4)
Extension of Riverbay’s Bookkeeping window hours continue through spring BY ROZAAN BOONE In consideration of Riverbay shareholders who work outside of the community and must leave early to travel to their jobs, Riverbay Corporation will continue the extension of the Finance Department’s Bookkeeping window through to next Spring. The next Bookkeeping window extended hours will be available on Monday, December 31, when the service will commence at 8 a.m. The Bookkeeping window, which is located in the Riverbay administrative reception area in the Bartow Community
Center, 2049 Bartow Avenue, will continue to open at 8 a.m., instead of 9 a.m., on the two busiest days of the month for the Finance Department—the 10th of the month which is the last day for shareholders to pay their maintenance charges without the $50 late fee, and the last business day of the month when maintenance charges must be paid before legal action commences and a $200 legal fee is assessed. “We are happy to be able to provide the extra hour for the shareholders to (Continued on page 2)
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Holiday closings and Co-op City Times early deadline notice All Riverbay’s administrative offices will close at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24. The following week, on New Year’s eve, Monday, December 31, all administrative offices, EXCEPT the Rent Bookkeeping office, will again close at 4 p.m. Since December 31st is the last business
day of the month, the Rent Bookkeeping Office will remain open until 5 p.m. ONLY on Monday, December 31. Because of these holiday shortened work week, Directors’ viewpoints and community organizations’ articles must be submitted before 9 a.m. on (Continued on page 6)
The Spirit of Giving … Dozens of students from Co-op City’s M.S. 181 delivered more than 1000 food items to the Food Pantry of Black Forum in Dreiser Community Center on Tuesday, December 11th just in time for the holiday season. Teacher Tara McCrossan said that the students were involved in the entire process, from soliciting the donations from M.S. 181 students and faculty, organizing the collection process, packing the donations, and then delivering the food items to the pantry. Once they arrived at the pantry, Board Director and Black Forum coordinator Tony Illis explained the workings and the importance of the pantry and then thanked the children for their donation and the time that they devoted to helping others. Photo by Bill Stuttig