Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2013 Co-op City Times
Vol. 48 No. 12
Saturday, March 23, 2013
F ull elevator service restored to Buildings 28B and 29A after lengthy shutdowns BY BILL STUTTIG Two buildings that have had limited elevator service for more than a month – nearly two months in the case of Building 28B – had their elevator service fully restored this past week. Elevator 4 in Building 28B, which has been out of service since February 4th, was restored as of Thursday. General Manager Vernon Cooper explained that technicians for Thyssen Krupp Elevator Corporation (TKE), the firm responsible for the 25-year warranty on all Co-op City elevators, finished replacing the worm and gear assembly on elevator 4 in Building 28B earlier this week plus repairs to the sheave and the drive sheave. Following this, Ver-Tech, the firm which currently holds the service contract on Co-op City’s elevators, installed new hoist ropes and then conducted full load
and brake tests along with Riverbay’s consultants and determined that the elevator was safe to operate. The elevator service was restored by Thursday afternoon. Late Friday morning, service to elevator 1 in Building 29A – which has been down since February 20th – was also fully restored to service in a similar manner after both Ver-Tech and Thyssen Krupp elevator companies jointly worked to complete the needed repairs. The recent progress in restoring full elevator service to these two buildings was only made possible after Riverbay’s attorneys went to Bronx Supreme Court to have the courts order the two elevators contractors to live up to their warranty and service agreements. Last Thursday, under the supervision of (Continued on page 4)
Annual Income Affidavits BY LOUIS SALEGNA, CONTROLLER The annual income affidavit process for Co-op City residents is currently underway. The Income Affidavit and related instructions were mailed out this week to all cooperators required to file (excluded are new residents who moved into Co-op City after December 31, 2012, and those cooperators on the Section 8 Program). The due date for returning your completed Affidavit, which must be
notarized, is Ap r il 30, 2013. Currently, surcharges based upon 2011 Income Affidavit forms will expire June 30, 2013. New surcharges will be imposed for the period July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014 based upon data taken from your 2012 Income Affidavit form. Please note that it is essential that every cooperator submits their 2012 Income Affidavit in a timely manner. If you filed an application for extension in lieu (Continued on page 4)
Transformer failure causes brief power failure in nine buildings early Tuesday morning BY BILL STUTTIG A transformer failure in Building 10 caused an electrical feeder serving nine buildings and portions of three townhouse clusters to trip offline interrupting power for approximately two hours during the overnight early Tuesday morning. According to Power Plant Director, Brian Reardon, the problem was detected by the overnight maintenance crew at approximately 3:15 a.m. The power failure affected Buildings 9 through 14, and the tower building cluster of Buildings 23, 24 and 25 and portions of the Cooper, Broun and Debs Place townhouses. The problem was indentified as a failure in the C-2 feeder and service to those buildings was then switched over to the A-3 feeder. Power was fully
restored to the affected homes by 5 a.m., early enough for most residents to have never realized there was a power failure at all except for the blinking clocks. One residual problem did develop as a result and lasted through the day as the domestic water pumps in Building 25 tripped off due to the power failure and did not resume operation after the power was restored causing that building to lose water service for most of the day and affecting Buildings 23, 24 and 25. The problem was rectified by the afternoon and water service to those buildings resumed. Late Thursday morning, March 14th, (Continued on page 2)
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Fourteen pick up petitions to run for the Board of Directors; Deadline for submission is April 1 BY ROZAAN BOONE Fourteen shareholders picked up qualifying petitions for the annual election of the Riverbay Board of Directors which will take place on Wednesday, May 22. The petition period for those who hope to qualify as a candidate began this past Monday, March 18th, and will conclude at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 1st, when all signed petitions are due back to the Riverbay Legal Department, located in the Administrative building at 2049 Bartow Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. Out of the fourteen resident shareholders who picked up petitions to run for a seat on the 2013 Riverbay Board of Directors this week, 4 are incumbent Directors, two are former Board Directors, several others who have run for the Board in the past, and a couple who are running for the first time. According to the Riverbay Legal Department, those picking up petitions as of press-time yesterday are Emanuel Armfield, Frank Belcher, William Craft, William Gordon, Amrendra Singh, Kevin Lambright, Evelyn Santiago, Sebastian Ulanga, Bernard Cylich, Andrea Leslie, Evelyn Santiago, Raymond Tirado, Emmanuel Torres and Cynthia Isales.
Any cooperator in good financial standing can run for a three-year term on the Board. Seventy-five valid cooperators’ signatures are needed on candidates’ petitions in order for them to qualify to run for the Board. Those interested in running for the Board can request qualifying petitions in person from the Riverbay receptionist at the Administrative Desk in the Bartow Community Center, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. After 5 p.m. weekdays or throughout the weekend, petitions can be picked up at the Public Safety window in the Bartow Center. Signed petitions must be returned no later than 5 p.m. on Monday, April 1. Shareholders will be voting to fill five open seats on the Board again this year. The five vacant seats on the Board result as the current terms of Directors Helen Atkins, Bernard Cylich, Andrea Leslie, Evelyn Santiago and Raymond Tirado are expiring. All petitions must be picked up and signed for by the prospective candidates, not by any representative, friend or family member. (Continued on page 2)
Board approves 1% carrying charge increase, awaits response from state BY JIM ROBERTS The Riverbay Board of Directors has overwhelmingly approved a proposed carrying charge increase of 1% starting this October, to be followed by no increase from April, 2014 to March, 2015. The proposed increase would go into effect on October 1 of this year, and will raise the average monthly carrying charges per room from $205.06 to $207.11 per month. At a Board meeting on March 13, Board Directors passed Resolution #1320 which states “that the proposed Riverbay Corporation Budget for the fiscal years 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 is approved and Management is authorized to process the necessary application with the NYS HCR for the above stated carrying charge increase. Upon the NYS HCR’s review and approval, Management is authorized to implement the carrying charge increase that the Commissioner of the HCR authorizes.” Riverbay Corporation will now apply to the state Housing and Community Renewal agency – the state supervisory agency for Mitchell-Lama developments like Co-op City – for the carrying charge increase.
HCR will review the proposal and make its own preliminary two-year projections regarding Riverbay’s budget. Shareholders will be served with notice of the proposed increase, along with the housing company’s application and projections, and HCR’s preliminary projections. Residents will be given an opportunity to review the application and projections (both the housing company’s and HCR’s) and to submit written comments to HCR. At the conclusion of a 30-day comment period, a rent increase conference will be scheduled where the residents and/or their representatives will be able to discuss the proposed rent increase directly with representatives of the housing company and HCR, before the HCR Commissioner makes the final determination as to how much of an increase would be necessary for Co-op City to meet its operating expenses in the next two years. Riverbay Board Directors voting yes at the March 13th Board meeting included Eleanor Bailey, Bernie Cylich, Leah Graham, Tony Illis, Othelia Jones, Andrea Leslie, Evelyn Santiago, Raymond Tirado, Evelyn Turner and Khalil Abdul(Continued on page 2)