Vol. 55 No. 2
Saturday, January 11, 2020
DOB approved collapsed wind turbine
Three open meetings scheduled for upcoming week $1.25
Shareholders encouraged to attend
Three open meetings will be held in the Bartow Center in the upcoming week – an Open Board meeting, a report to Co-op City shareholders on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State Address and an open Legislative Committee meeting with NYPD’s Transit Bureau to discuss interactions with Co-op City commuters. All shareholders are invited to attend. On Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, an open meeting of the Riverbay Board will take place in room 31 of the Bartow Center, beginning at 7:30 p.m. On the agenda is Riverbay Board President Linda Berk’s report, which will be followed by General Counsel Jeff Buss’presentation on the property at 500 Baychester Avenue and Riverbay Corporation’s pro-active steps to get answers once it became evident that a wind turbine was indeed being erected at the site, as well as actions taken by Mr. Buss to investigate this matter and ensure accountability (See related article on page 1.). Also on the agenda is a management report from Executive General Manager Bob Klehammer. Mr. Klehammer will lay out management’s goals for this year. The Board will also vote on a few second readings of resolutions, while others are introduced as first reads. BY ROZAAN BOONE
Documents obtained by the Co-op City Times this week show the city Department of Buildings approved the Dec. 13 construction of the wind turbine at 500 Baychester Ave., left, that partially collapsed Dec. 30, right. The property ower had permission to build the turbine in 2018 but the size and nature of the device appear to be have been in violation of city zoning and the locals law governing wind turbines. Photos by Ralph Henriquez
The debris and damage have been cleaned up and repaired. People are going in and out of the businesses and parking lot on the property. But there are still questions about how a wind turbine that partially collapsed Dec. 30 was built at 500 Baychester Ave. in the first place. Documents obtained by the Co-op City Times show the property owner both had permission from the city Department of Buildings to put the turbine up and, as of this week, has the department’s permission to take the apparatus BY JASON CHIREVAS
meant to host the ill-fated turbine back down again. But, according to city building code and local law, it doesn’t appear the turbine should have been there in the first place. In May 2014, the property owner at 500 Baychester — doing business as Baychester Retail III LLC — obtained a permit from the Department of Buildings to erect a “structure for directly illuminated signage.” Such a sign is permissible under the property’s current zoning code, C7, which is
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Underground leak in Section 5
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Smoke detector installations delayed Co-op City shareholders who are still waiting for new smoke detector installations might have to wait a little longer than scheduled. The completion date of March 2020 is now July 2020, due to unavailability of sufficient Red Cross volunteers. The project was initially expected to last 6-7 months after its start date back in April 2019. Co-op City residents are receiving new smoke and carbon monoxide detectors compliments of the American Red Cross of Greater New York, whose workers initially started installing the devices in every residential unit throughout the community, beginning with Buildings 1 and 35 on April 4, 2019. At that time, two teams of Riverbay managers consisting of 12 staff members from the CSO, Risk Management, Safety, and Parking & Leasing departments accompanied six teams of American Red Cross personnel to Buildings 1 and 35 to commence the smoke detector/carbon monoxide installation. Now, due to a low number of Red Cross volunteers, Riverbay has dedicated its staff and personnel to complete around 70 percent of the work. Anthony Barzelatto, Riverbay’s director of Safety, said, a depletion BY TORIEA McCAUSELAND
of Red Cross volunteers has led to the timeframe of the overall project taking longer than expected. A New York City building code requirement calling for carbon monoxide detectors in all new and existing multi-family homes, apartment buildings and hotels, as well as a series of fires in Co-op City, influenced the start of the program. According to Mr. Barzelatto: “We’re looking to extend the program until the end of July. We were hoping to be finished by March, but unfortunately, the number of volunteers being sent from the Red Cross have dwindled dramatically. We’re hoping that maybe for the new year, volunteers will pick up again. We have to keep going with what we have.” To date, 14,845 alarms have been installed in 5,302 apartments throughout the neighborhood – over 40 percent of the community completed. Shareholders will be notified of upcoming plans for installation. If a shareholder is unavailable on the date their apartment is scheduled, they should contact the Riverbay Call Center to reschedule their appointment. Mr. Barzelatto said Riverbay will make up to six or seven attempts to gain access to the dwelling, (Continued on page 4)
On Wednesday evening, Jan. 8, a major underground leak in one of the high temperature hot water vaults that serves all Section 5 buildings, including PS 160, was discovered at around 6 p.m., requiring quick response from the Riverbay Power Plant, Maintenance and Public Safety. According to the Power Plant’s senior director of (Continued on page 3)