Co-op City Times 07/15/17

Page 1

Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2017 Co-op City Times

Vol. 52 No. 28

Saturday, July 15, 2017

New District Manager Aims To Work Closely With Co-op City BY BILL STUTTIG

Matthew Cruz, the new District Manager for Community Board 10, summed up his job in just two words: conversation facilitator. The young 25-year old manager began the job just a little over a month ago, filling a seat that has been vacant for several months following the retirement of Ken Kearns late last year. He comes to the office on E. Tremont Avenue from the city’s Department of Buildings where he worked as the Bronx Borough liaison since early 2016. “I am an urban planner by trade,” said the new young district manager who touted a freshly minted Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College. A Morris Park resident who grew up in the public housing developments of east Harlem, Mr. Cruz said he is well acquainted with the concerns of multi-family housing developments and familiar with the needs of the entire district service area having worked for City Councilman Jimmy Vacca as his budget director before taking on his position with the DOB. Councilman Vacca, who served as

district manager for Community Board 10 for 26 years before being elected to the Council in 2005 told the Co-op

Matthew Cruz

City Times this week that he believes Mr. Cruz is well-suited to the job. “I believe Matt will do great,” the councilman said. “He started in my office as an intern and worked his way up to be my budget director in just a few years. He is diligent and dedicated and has great leadership qualities. He

HPD Workshop To Provide Assistance To SCRIE Applicants BY ROZAAN BOONE

New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) has scheduled a Senior Citizens Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) workshop to assist Co-op City shareholders to complete their SCRIE applications in order to receive help paying for the 1.9% increase in carrying charges which will be implemented on Tuesday, August 1, 2017. The SCRIE workshop will be held in the Dreiser Auditorium A on Saturday, August 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shareholders who have already been approved for SCRIE do not need to reapply. Riverbay has submitted all required documents regarding the upcoming carrying charge increase to HPD and your increase exemption will be processed automatically. However, if you are 62 years of age or older and you meet all of the other SCRIE criteria, and you have not yet applied for the program, you should fill out an application, submit it to HPD for processing and HPD will notify you if you qualify for the exemption. The SCRIE program provides senior citizens an exemption from paying future increases in their carrying charges, thereby helping them to remain in affordable housing. To be eligible for the SCRIE program, applicants must satisfy all of the following requirements: (Continued on page 2)

25¢

Riverbay Board President Appoints Chairs Of 2017-2018 Riverbay Board Committees BY ROZAAN BOONE

Riverbay Board President Linda Berk announced the appointment of officers for Riverbay Board committees that will be functioning during the 2017-2018 year at the July 12th Board meeting. Riverbay Board Committees are made up of Board directors and shareholders and meet during the year to provide policy recommendations for the full Board’s consideration. Except for the Audit Committee, any sitting director may attend the meetings of any committee(s) they wish to. “Board committees are an important part of the work the Board does,” said Board President Berk. “I want us to use the committees more than we have in the past. Through the work of the committees, the Board should have a mechanism to identify areas

(Continued on page 4)

Payment of August 2017 Maintenance Through PayLease Shareholders enrolled in electronic payment of monthly carrying charges through PayLease must log into their account and change the payment amount when paying their August 2017 bill to reflect the 1.9% carrying charge increase which becomes effective on Aug. 1.

that need attention, to motivate thinking of new ideas and to provide recommendations to the board. The value of the committees is that they are made up of shareholders who should be working from a vantage point of experiences as a resident.” Once again this year, to improve efficiency of the work done in the committees, while some remain under the purview of the Riverbay Board, others are placed under the Riverbay Fund. The committees that will be overseen by the Riverbay Fund are Community Relations, Education, History and the Youth Committees. Board Secretary Rod Saunders, who was elected president of the Riverbay Fund at the Board’s June 21st Open Board meeting, will also continue to chair the Board’s Education Committee. Director (Continued on page 16)

Fire Safety Riverbay’s Director of Safety Anthony Barzelatto led a fire drill and mock evacuation out of the Bartow Community Center Tuesday morning in which all employees, visitors and seniors in the senior center were escorted out of the building and assembled in the outdoor plaza at the rear of the center where Mr. Barzelatto addressed the assembly about proper procedures should it have been an actual fire. Several Riverbay employees have volunteered in recent weeks to serve as wardens and searchers in charge of evacuating all occupants quickly and efficiently in case of a fire. This was the first test of the new procedure and it went well, according to Mr. Barzelatto. Additional drills will be held in Bartow and the other two community centers in the coming months and the FDNY is expected to participate in some of those drills. Photo by Bill Stuttig

New Community Board Chair Sullivan Focused On Helping Co-op City BY JIM ROBERTS

Cruz to tackle these three prioriThe newly-elected chairman ties during his first term as of Community Board 10 is chairman. focused on three areas to help “We feel the Metro-North train Co-op City residents – the prostop will be a great thing for posed waterfront park, the Co-op City. Co-op City seems to planned Metro-North station and have been overlooked by the ongoing traffic and transit issues. MTA over the years,” Sullivan “We’re going to have to be said. “The station won’t be within effective advocates for our resiwalking distance for everyone dents on all these issues because living there and will incorporate when it really comes down to it, additional people from outside, the community board is only so we have to see if there is a posadvisory,” said Peter Sullivan, Peter Sullivan and his wife Helena sibility for some sort of parking. who was elected to a one-year term as chairman on We want to find a way to give the community a say in June 15. “Our mission is to build stronger relationwhat goes on there. It’s a very long process to do.” ships with the elected officials and work with them. The long-promised goal of commuter train service from Co-op City into Manhattan is still several years They have more say than the community boards.” away in the best possible scenario. Before service Sullivan said he is looking forward to working with the newly-appointed district manager Matthew (Continued on page 4)


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.