Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2013 Co-op City Times
Vol. 48 No. 15
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Teamwork leads to quick arrest of Co-op City murder suspect BY BILL STUTTIG Tireless police work and the uniting of the resources of the 45th Precinct and Coop City Public Safety Department led to the arrest of a Co-op City resident suspected of murdering another man by shooting him four times in the head late last Saturday night near Dreiser Loop. Michael Wright, age 30, a former Coop City resident who lived in the Baychester community, was found dead in the middle of the street with four bullet wounds in his head near the intersection of Dreiser Loop and DeFoe Place shortly before 10 p.m. on April 6th.
The heinous and cold blooded nature of the assassination-type murder sent shock waves through the community and the city while it propelled both departments into an around-the-clock effort to try to quickly find the dangerous individual who could commit such a crime. Chief Frank Apollo, Commander of the Department of Public Safety, said Public Safety detectives worked through the night and all day the next day combing over surveillance video from each of the dozens of cameras on and in buildings (Continued on page 2)
Scene near the intersection of Dreiser Loop and DeFoe Place at approximately 9:50 p.m. on Saturday night after a man was found fatally shot four times in the head. (Photo submitted by a cooperator)
Brief outage Monday evening caused by failed transformer BY JIM ROBERTS The power went out in Buildings 1522 early Monday evening when a transformer in Building 16 burned out during routine preventive maintenance work. Electricity from Co-op City’s power plant also went out in the Broun, Adler and Asch Townhouses near those buildings and the Bartow Shopping Center on April 8, according to Riverbay Power Plant Director Brian Reardon. The Building 16 transformer burned up two phases causing the fault and tripping the main D-1 feeder. “The system worked as it was designed,” Reardon said. “If there is a fault on a feeder, the main breaker trips to protect the rest of the system.” Full power was restored two hours later after Riverbay workers went into each of the affected buildings and manually switched the power back to the other B-3 feeder. The residential buildings in Co-op City are normally powered by two feeders, but when preventative maintenance is being done, one of the feeders has to be shut
down for the safety of the workers handling the electrical systems. Normally, when a fault occurs in a feeder, the other feeder will automatically keep the electricity running. But when there is only one feeder operating, the system will shut off the power. “When both feeders are normally in, there is a breaker designed to do this automatically within the building, but when you take out one of the feeders, it can’t go anywhere,” Reardon said. “The one downside of maintenance that we do every three to four years is that you leave yourself a little vulnerable, but there’s no way around that.” The electrical equipment that failed is original to the construction of Co-op City and is more than 40 years old. A transformer converts higher voltage down to lower voltage. The Power Plant produces electricity at 13,200 volts which is reduced down to 480 volts by the transformers that feed into the buildings. Smaller transformers on various floors inside the buildings then reduce that to household voltage used in the apartments.
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Official candidates in 2013 Riverbay Board election to be certified April 23 BY ROZAAN BOONE The official candidates who will compete for one of the five open seats on the Riverbay Board of Directors will be announced on Tuesday, April 23, at the Candidates’ Meeting which will be held in Room 31 of the Bartow Community Center at 8 p.m. Last Monday, April 1, at the conclusion of the petition period to run in this year’s Board election, 16 potential candidates who had picked up qualifying petitions since they became available on Monday, March 18, returned their petition packages to the Riverbay Legal Department signifying their intention to participate in the race to fill five Board seats in the Wednesday, May 22nd election. Among the 16 potential candidates are all five of the incumbent Board Directors running for re-election this year—Helen Atkins, Bernard Cylich, Andrea Leslie, Evelyn Santiago and Raymond Tirado. The other shareholders who returned their petitions include some shareholders who have run for the Board in the past, some who have served on the Board previously, and some who are new candidates. They
include Emanuel Armfield, Frank Belcher, William Craft, William Gordon, Amrendra Singh, Kevin Lambright, Sebastian Ulanga, Charles Phipps, Emmanuel Torres, Cynthia Isales and Leslie Peterson. With the petition period over, non-resident Riverbay staff conducted electronic signature verification on each of the signed petitions. This process was supervised by Riverbay’s senior counsel, Michael Munns; Director Eleanor Bailey, Chair of the 2013 Election Committee, and Mary Ahland, Riverbay’s Director of Computer Services. In addition, based on the results of the signature check, and the criminal background check, the 2013 Election Committee also verified that none of the candidates are indebted to the Riverbay Corporation and are up to date in the payment of their maintenance charges before compiling the final list of candidates. The official field of candidates will be announced at the Candidates’ meeting on Tuesday, April 23, in Room 31 of the (Continued on page 2)
Police, Public Safety seek suspect in Wednesday’s shooting outside Building 19 BY BILL STUTTIG 45th Precinct and Public Safety investigators are seeking a Co-op City man who they believe is responsible for shooting another man in the leg at approximately 7:30 Wednesday evening outside of Building 19. Captain James McGeown, Comm-
ander of the 45th Precinct, said that the shooting was possibly precipitated by a dispute between two male individuals over a woman. The Captain added that there was absolutely no connection between this shooting and the shooting (Continued on page 4)
Pathway to the Park … Work began earlier this month on a new Greenway along the Hutchinson River Parkway as it runs through Co-op City. The Greenway, which will run under the Hutchinson River Bridge and up a graduated incline onto the bridge leading to Pelham Bay Park on the other side is designed to connect an existing Greenway along Pelham Parkway with this new section, providing direct access to the natural beauty and attractions of the park. Concerns that Riverbay expressed during the planning stages for the Greenway have been largely addressed. General Manager Vernon Cooper said, “Safety measures that the city will put in place ensure that the passage for cyclists and pedestrians are safeguarded as the landscape around this area is cleared of weeds, dead trees, debris and any other items that may have obstructed views of the path in front and behind them, which is paramount in terms of safety.” Photo by Bill Stuttig