Co-op City Times 9/29/18

Page 1

Vol. 53 No. 39

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Proposed Animal Shelter On Bartow Avenue Wins Approval Of Planning Commission Despite a vocal, ongoing campaign by some Co-op City residents to stop it, the path toward building a city-owned animal shelter on Bartow Avenue continued its march forward last week. With a 30-second, unanimous vote, the New York City Planning Commission gave its approval to build the animal shelter on city-owned property on Bartow Avenue next to the Red Lobster restaurant. The vote was taken Sept. 26th during the commission’s meeting held in Lower Manhattan. Both Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Community Board #10 have expressed their opposition to the proposal. But the city ULURP (Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure) process does not give either of those opinions any standing to stop the project. With Planning Commission approval secured, the project next goes to the New York City Council committees having jurisdiction and, ultimately, to the whole Council for a vote that would send the project on to the Mayor for his signature. City Council Member Andy King, Co-op City’s representative, issued a statement following the PlanBY JIM ROBERTS

ning Commission vote last week. “We have seen the Borough President speak on this issue and now the Commission has approved the Bartow Avenue Animal Shelter,” Councilman King said. “A Community Board hearing on this matter heard a united voice from Co-op City residents against the particular project and location proposed, while at the same time we recognize many Bronxites are excited about the prospect of building this facility as soon as possible. “The Council will hold a hearing in a land use subcommittee on October 9th and I will have the opportunity to publicly question the Administration on concerns surrounding this project,” Councilman King said. “I have stated time and again that I will follow the wishes of the neighborhood and the surrounding community on this project and all projects that impact our residential communities. While we look to comply with the law of building an animal shelter in our borough of the Bronx, we cannot, and I will not, forget the position of our local residents,” King said. More discussions at subcommittee hearings and among City Council members (Continued on page 2)

Power Plant Starts Switchover Work To Turn On Heat Oct. 15 This summer’s hot, humid days have quickly given way to crisp, cool fall weather and the Riverbay Power Plant is swinging into action to make the annual switch from cooling to heat for Co-op City residents. Air conditioning in the apartments will be turned off on Sunday night, Sept. 30th, and the heat will turn on Oct. 15, according to Riverbay Director of Utility Assets Anthony Ligato. During that two-week period, workers will use the outage time at the Power Plant plant to carry out preventive mainte- change-over. nance work that can only be done when the plant’s gas turbines are powered down. “The outage is done to assure reliability of heat and electricity during the winter months and ensure the plant is making power for the residents at an economic rate,” Ligato said. “Although the power plant was built very well, aging issues of the facility necessitate continued focus on maintenance activities.” Riverbay uses a combination of in-house staff and outside contractors to do the work on a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule, seven days a week. The chillers are configured for the winter, the cooling tower is cleaned and inspected, and inspections required by New York City are conducted on the boilers that run to make the heat. While the gas turbines and other Power Plant equipment is down to do maintenance work, mechanical contractors repair valves identified as not working properly while the boilers are off-line. Inspections on some other equipment that can only be done during the October or May outages have to be done by outside third-party certified (Continued on page 4)

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New Director Of Riverbay Grounds Dept. Michael Ambo, a 15-year veteran of Riverbay, has been appointed as the new permanent director of the Grounds department by Riverbay’s Executive General Manager Bob Klehammer. “Mike has filled in ably and competently during the period following the illness and unfortunate passing of Donovan Plummer, the former director of the Grounds Department,” said Mr. Klehammer. “He’s an innovative problem solver and has demonstrated his ability (Continued on page 10) BY TORIEA McCAUSELAND

Sewer Repairs on Bartow Avenue Michael Ambo

Photo by Toriea McCauseland

BY JIM ROBERTS

preparing for heat Photo by Jim Roberts

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) crews began laying new sewer pipes along Bartow Avenue earlier this week. The work is expected to be competed by Wednesday. Photocaption by Fiifi Frimpongi; Photo by Brandon Ortiz

IBO Says No Lead In Co-op City Water in Most Recent Tests

Open Meeting Today In Dreiser On Bus Service

Despite a local news report that Co-op City is In an effort to present a cohesive plan to the Metamong six neighborhoods in the city with the highest ropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on how levels of lead in its water, the New York City Independto improve bus service in Co-op City, the Riverbay ent Budget Office (IBO) said this week that no lead Board’s Legislative Committee is inviting all sharewas found in Co-op City water in the most recent tests. holders to a meeting of the committee today, SaturSpeaking to the Co-op City Times on Thursday, day, Sept. 29th, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in Dreiser Doug Turetsky, Communications Director at IBO, auditorium B. said: “From the zip code that Co-op City buildings are Shareholders who depend on public bus service in, there were very few tests, and on the most recent provided by the MTA are encouraged to attend and ones – those from 2006 to 2016 – no lead was found.” share their suggestions on how best to restructure In the September 2018 IBO report, entitled, “Lead the current bus routes to better serve the community. in Tap Water Remains Issue In Some City Dwellings,” This meeting is being held in advance of the MTA’s which was prepared by IBO’s (Continued on page 4) “Fast Forward Bronx Bus (Continued on page 2) BY ROZAAN BOONE

BY ROZAAN BOONE


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