President’s Message

- by Jean Hall

It is important that we understand that each of us plays a role in where we live. No matter how small you matter. We are a community and whether you lend a helping hand, attend meetings, make comments on social media, become a board member, or simply smile and say hello to someone, what you do matters. Remember that working together we will achieve great things it is only when we allow negativity to fester and grow that we jeopardize realizing our full potential as a thriving and productive Rochdale Village! Find your passion and continue the work in shaping your wonderful community!

We continue to be on track with the building community rooms: buildings 1, 5, 10, 14, and 18. Maintenance has verified that the final punch list for these rooms has been completed. We are awaiting the delivery of new refrigerators.

Next step will be for the keyholders and board to meet to finalize the revised guidelines and policies that will govern each community room. A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 9, 2023. A notification was sent to each existing keyholder and those expressing interest in becoming keyholders. Thus far only a few keyholders/perspective keyholders have indicated they will be in attendance. Only building community rooms where there are at least two (2) key-holders who have received and agreed to the updated guidelines and policies will reopen. The schedule for the remaining building community rooms to re-open will be obtained from maintenance and made public. We will continue to keep you updated.

Cooperators have been asked to rank the following apartment upgrades:

» Upgrade USB outlets

» Upgrade Kitchen faucets

» Upgrade Bathroom Medicine cabinet and light fixtures

Each cooperator has the opportunity to indicate your choice by ranking the potential upgrades – choice 1, choice 2, and choice 3. The information was available at committee meetings, management will post online and there will be a form in this month’s bulletin which you can return to the board office.

Civic engagement what is it and why should it matter to us in Rochdale Village?

“Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and nonpolitical processes.”

There will be an intense focus on civic engagement. Rochdale Village does not exist in a vacuum and therefore we must reach out to our neighboring civic associations and work collaboratively on issues that we have in common. Presently, the issue of having the MTA restore the Far Rockaway Line to provide connections back to Atlantic Terminal particularly during rush hours deserves our collective attention. When service on the LIRR was extended to Grand Central Station, the Far Rockaway lines were rerouted to support the Grand Central station leaving our residents without direct access, connections and service to Atlantic Terminal station in Brooklyn. Thus far we have gathered 1,303 signatures via change.org and now we will take our petitions to our elected officials. We are looking for individuals to assist with letter writing and organizing. Please contact me at jhall@ rochdalevillage.com if you have a passion to get things done!

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

~Martin Luther King