Vol. 56 No. 10
Saturday, March 6, 2021
Vaccine mega site opens in Co-op City’s Dreiser auditorium Following several weeks of negotiations and advocacy by Riverbay Management and Board, and local elected officials, Co-op City was chosen as one of the mega vaccine sites in the city to help get vaccines into the arms of residents of one of the hardest hit boroughs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Dreiser vaccination site is run by the NYC Department of Health. Vaccines are being provided by a city contractor, Affiliated Physicians. In addition, Co-op City is the first NYC community to get the city’s Home Bound program which began here on Thursday, March 4. The citywide Homebound program will begin on March 15; the city plans on releasing registration information next week. Co-op City Executive General Manager Bob Klehammer said: “This is truly a blessing for the community. It will prevent hospitalizations and Dreiser Auditorium is transformed into a vacdeaths. We are grateful that we cination site run by the NYC Department of have elected officials who are Health. strong advocates for Co-op City and worked with us to get a vaccine site established here.” BY ROZAAN BOONE
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See pages 3, 4 and 5 for R.U.O.K., Phone Tree and Emergency Services forms
Transformer fire causes multibuilding blackout in Section 1 Root cause of outages still under investigation
A transformer fire in Building 8 last Friday morning caused a multi-building blackout in Section 1, and though power was restored later that evening, there were several additional disruptions Sunday into Monday before the system was stabilized. The fire caused all power to be lost in Buildings 1-7, Defoe Townhouses, part of Debs Townhouses, Dreiser Mall and Garage 1. Crews from the Power Plant responded immediately and worked through the day until power began to be restored around 11:00 p.m. that evening. While emergency work was being completed, Management, together with the Red Cross and the City’s Emergency Management Office brought supplies of bottled water and snacks to the community which were available in rooms that were opened in Buildings 9, 10 & 11 and Bartow Center. Power strips were deployed for residents to charge their cell phones and other devices. “Co-op City has two Buildings in Section 1 were left in the dark main feeders to the build- due to the transformer fire in Building 8. Photo by Ralph Henriquez ings, an A and a C feeder. The transformer that caught fire was on the A feeder. We restored power on Friday night by rerouting electricity from the Power Plant to the affected buildings on the C feeder because we did not know at the time what caused the outage, but were concerned there had been a fault in the A feeder,” said Coop City Executive General Manager Bob Klehammer. Before the power could be restored, Power Plant (Continued on page 4)
$1.25
Co-op City Power Outage
President’s Message
Linda Berk President
This past week was one of the most consequential weeks in Co-op City. As most people were gearing up for a relaxing weekend, our community was hit with an eight building, one townhouse cluster and one shopping center power outage. To make matters worse, the shopping center, Dreiser Mall, houses the entire development’s Call Center. I was literally wrapping up a meeting with directors of the various departments that service the community, from Maintenance, Restoration, IT, and the Call Center, to discuss how we can tweak our system for zero tolerance for some issues. As we ended the meeting, phones started going off! Fire in the transformer in Building 8. Call Center down unable to respond to calls. Electricity out in one building after the other. Maintenance and Restoration unable to provide service in the offices and the trade shops were shutting down. Clearly, this was the beginning of a major issue. From the very first emergency call received at approximately 10 a.m., the management team I was with began an onslaught of quick decisive actions.
Riverbay Board approves 2021 Election Rules & Schedule
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Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held virtually Mon., May 3, 7:30 p.m. BY ROZAAN BOONE
At the Wednesday, March 3, 2021 meeting of the Riverbay Board of Directors, the 2021 Election Rules and Schedule were approved by the board, setting the date of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Monday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. This year, for the first time in the history of the Riverbay Corporation, the meeting will be conducted virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic and CDC and local health and government guidelines which have not yet been lifted to allow large gatherings of people. In addition, the traditional petition period will also not be held this year as social distancing protocols remain in effect (Continued on page 8)
Is a third stimulus check a certainty? BY BRANDON ORTIZ
If so, who gets one?
The US House of Representatives officially passed its $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill over the weekend and now the legislation currently awaits Senate approval and ultimately President Biden’s signature. Personal stimulus checks were included in the bill but the details surrounding who will qualify this time to receive one might be different than when the previous two checks were sent out. In an effort to gather Senate support, various media outlets reported this week that President Biden agreed to narrow the eligibility requirements for this round of stimulus checks. Under this new revision, individuals earning under $80,000 in adjusted gross income would receive a $1,400 check. Couples who file jointly and earn under $160,000 in adjusted gross income would receive $2,800 plus $1,400 for each additional child they have. Notably, this round of stimulus checks does pay out additional money for each dependent claimed on an individual’s taxes unlike in previous rounds, which means adult dependents, for example, college students, would receive a check as well this time around. “Staying unified as we complete this process to pass the American Rescue Plan won’t just make a difference in our fight against COVID-19 and our efforts to rebuild the economy, it will also show the American people we’re capable of coming together for what matters most to them,” President Biden said on Wednesday at the House Democratic Caucus Virtual Issues Conference. (Continued on page 4)