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Board exploring ways to maintain Riverbay workers stay through the night to dig Co-op City out from affordability as community faces snow storm increased expenses Vol. 50 No. 5
Cablevision representatives came before the Riverbay Board of Directors Wednesday evening in an attempt to possibly revive the bulk cable deal offered in 2013 to help cooperators save on their monthly cable bill. Should this deal be accepted by the community this go-around, it will result in Co-op City’s Cablevision subscribers saving as much as an estimated $8M over the course of the 5-year commitment to the cable franchise. The Cablevision presentation is part of the Riverbay Board’s ongoing exploration of options to help offset the increases in carrying charges that will be necessary to pay for significant expenses incurred by the Riverbay Corporation as a result of the Ramirez vs. Riverbay employment lawsuit, and the expenses related to clean up of the cooling tower at the Power Plant after preliminary tests conducted by the city’s Department of Health found the possible presence of legionella bacteria. In their presentation Wednesday night, Ben Topor and Michael Weiss from Cablevision gave preliminary BY BILL STUTTIG
Saturday, January 31, 2015
numbers to the Board which – much like the deal offered in December, 2013 – gives each subscriber to Cablevision living in Co-op City a $50 discount on their monthly cable bill regardless of their level of service. In return, all Co-op City subscribers would have to commit to Cablevision’s service for five years. According to Cablevision – the vast majority of Co-op City homes already subscribe to Cablevision. 13,192 apartments subscribe to the cable supplier while 2,181 do not, and either get their television service from Co-op City’s master antennae or have no television. When the deal was offered to the community in 2013, the Board required 2/3 of all shareholders to approve the deal. A voting process was set-up which many shareholders felt was haphazard and inaccurate although many shareholders seemed to favor the deal, while many others balked at the additional charge on their monthly carrying charge statement. Riverbay President Cleve Taylor
Eligible Co-op City shareholders to share $1.1M in 2014/2015 STAR tax credits Eligible Co-op City shareholders who applied for the New York State School Tax Relief (STAR) Property Tax Exemption for tax year 2014/ 2015 before the February 15, 2014 deadline shared $1,105,524.28 in credits as reflected on their February, 2015 carrying charge statements. The upcoming postmark deadline of March 15, 2015, will be for the 2015/2016 tax year, based on New York City’s fiscal year which runs from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. In total, out of Co-op City’s 15,372 apartments, 7,688 received the credit this year which amounts to $1,105,524.28 for Basic or Enhanced STAR. The current 2014/2015 credit for Basic STAR, which is determined by the New York City Finance Department, is $100.68 per apartment, and $215.08 for Enhanced STAR. Last fiscal year, 2013/2014, 8,727 eligible shareholders shared BY ROZAAN S. BOONE
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$1,125,469.28 when the credit for Basic STAR was $98.56 and for Enhanced STAR, $208.56. “These are a one-time credit provided to Riverbay for tax year 2014/ 2015 and Riverbay, in turn, passes the credit along to the eligible shareholders,” said Peter Merola, Riverbay’s Director of Finance and co-Interim General Manager of Riverbay Corporation. “The STAR credits were posted to the eligible shareholders’ accounts and appeared on their February, 2015 carrying charge monthly statements which have been mailed.” Basic STAR is available to any owner of a house, cooperative apartment, condominium or other property as long as at least one owner lives in or uses the property as their primary residence. Married couples owning more than one property can only have STAR on one property unless they are (Continued on page 4)
25¢
Because of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the predicted historic blizzard earlier this week, more than 100 Riverbay workers from several operational departments, including Buildings and Grounds, Janitorial, Restorations, Maintenance and Construction, agreed to stay overnight and sleep in the community centers so they could be on hand to dig the community out as the storm began to subside Tuesday morning. Riverbay’s co-Interim General ManaBY BILL STUTTIG
ger Noel Ellison explained that due to the special circumstances surrounding this storm – originally predicted to be of historic proportions – New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that they would be shutting down the city’s entire transit system – buses, subways and trains – as well as institute a travel ban for the entire downstate area, meaning no driving on highways or local streets, until the ban was lifted. (Continued on page 2)
A Riverbay truck equipped with a snow plow powers through and removes more than a foot of snow at a bus stop on Co-op City Blvd. early Tuesday morning. Photo by Jason Ravitch
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Cooling tower returned to service as snow storm approached earlier this week (See page 9)
The cooling tower at the Co-op City Power Plant was returned to service on Monday in time to provide redundancy at the plant as the blizzard of 2015 approached. The city’s Department of Health (DOH) notified Riverbay officials on Monday, Jan. 26, that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) had approved the Riverbay Corporation’s request to restart the Power Plant and cooling tower “to ensure it can meet the heat, hot water and electrical needs of the residents during the inclement weather conditions that have started today.” Approximately 3 weeks ago, the BY ROZAAN BOONE
cooling tower was shut down immediately after the DOH informed Riverbay officials of the possibility of Legionella bacteria in the tower. Since then, Riverbay had been purchasing power from Con Ed at a significant cost to the corporation as the decontamination and disinfection of the cooling tower moved forward in order to ensure the health and safety of residents, employees and the community at large. Last Friday, leading up to Monday’s dip in temperatures and the impending snow storm which was predicted to be “historic,” Con Ed had informed Power Plant Director Brian Reardon that they (Continued on page 4)