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Deborah Jenkins top vote getter in 2015 Riverbay Board election © Copyright 2015 Co-op City Times
Vol. 50 No. 20
Rev. Deborah Jenkins, a 16-year resident of Co-op City who was running for a seat on the Board for the first time, emerged as the top vote getter in Wednesday’s Riverbay Board of Directors election, garnering 3,206 votes from Riverbay shareholders, according to the preliminary count BY ROZAAN BOONE
Saturday, May 23, 2015
conducted on Thursday night, May 21. “I am overwhelmed by the support received from the community,” said Rev. Jenkins, Pastor of Faith @ Work Christian Church. “I believe this puts me in a place of accountability to all of my neighbors, a position I am willing to take on and I want to be seen as approachable and accountable for
Memorial Day observance planned for tomorrow at Mosley Veterans Memorial Park Deborah Jenkins
Tomorrow, May 24th, Co-op City residents will honor the memory of those who gave their lives for their country during this nation’s military conflicts as a Memorial Day Ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the community’s Harley J. Moseley Veterans Memorial Park on Bartow Avenue. The ceremonies honoring those who served in the many wars of the United States and all those who are currently serving in the military on active duty, in the National Guard or in the Reserves
BY BILL STUTTIG
Evelyn M. Turner
Rod Saunders
will be hosted by the American Legion Post 1871 and the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary. Jerome Rice, commander of American Legion Post 1871, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies and Delores Cornelius, President of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, will preside over the awards ceremony, along with Commander Rice. Music for the day will be provided by the New York City Transit Authority Drum and Bagpipes who will begin the
Memorial Day Closings; CCT deadline notice
every vote that I take. I want the community to know I see that we are one, and any vote that I take, I want to be taken in collaboration with my fellow cooperators through the quarterly forums that we promoted and which was one of the items that I ran on during the campaign. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to serve on our
(Continued on page 4)
The Co-op City Times office and all other Riverbay administrative offices, will be closed on Monday, May 25, in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Because of this holiday-shortened week, we ask all Board Directors, religious institutions, community organizations and others who submit articles to the Co-op City Times to please do so as early as possible. Directors’ viewpoints and club articles not received in our office by 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, May 26, will not be considered for publication in the May 30th edition of the paper. Thanks for your cooperation. Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day holiday weekend.
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Board and to help us move forward as a community.” In a field of nine candidates, the Cooperators with Vision slate of which Jenkins was a teammate clinched 4 of the 5 seats up for grabs in this year’s election. Jenkins finished 194 votes (Continued on page 2)
Francine Reva Jones
Junius Williams
Bringing painting in-house paying off for shareholders Riverbay is projected to save nearly $800,000 for shareholders over a 12month period by having Riverbayemployed union workers do all the painting and plastering work in apartments, according to figures from the Finance Department. For the first six months of the inhouse painting following the removal of outside contractor Atlas Restoration last October, the costs for wages, benefits and materials was $1,086,514. Doubling that figure shows an annual projected cost of $2,173,028. In comparison, Atlas Restoration’s contract was in place for approximately three years (November 2011 through October 2014) and during this period, they billed Riverbay $8,905,673 which works out to an average annual cost of $2,968,558, producing a projected annual savings of $795,000. “These numbers substantiate the position that I and other members of the Board have taken that quite a bit of the outsourcing can be done in-house with BY JIM ROBERTS
improved labor and improved relationships at a lower cost,” said Director Bernie Cylich, Riverbay’s Board Treasurer and a long-time advocate of using union labor to complete more work in-house. “The comparison is between our inhouse union staff and an outside nonunion outfit whose bid was so low that he was eventually unable to pay his own employees and he had to walk off the job,” Cylich said. “We are now going in-house with union workers with benefits and only working eight hours a day and they are coming in 27% lower. As time goes on and they work out all the kinks, I’m sure the costs will come down even lower.” According to Riverbay, there have been several other benefits to bringing the work in-house compared to an outside contractor. “In terms of quality of work, there have been fewer complaints, and less (Continued on page 4)
EMERGENCY BOARD MEETING Thursday, May 28th @ 7:30 p.m. (See flyer on page 4)