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Volume XVIII • Number 49 • December 1 - 7, 2011 •
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Will new heating oil rules bankrupt co-ops? By BRENDAN McHUGH It started as an environmental issue, and it’s now become an affordable housing problem. A new city-mandated rule requires all residential buildings to switch from No. 6 heating oil to at least No. 4—a cleaner, more expensive oil—by 2015, but then to No. 2 or natural gas by 2030. Environmental activists across the city celebrated the mandate, but for Riverdale, the mandate will end up costing many thousands. “You hear about a boiler conversion, but for the rest of the building, it’s a big expense,” said Community Board 8 housing committee chairman Thomas Durham. His building, at the corner of Waldo Avenue and Manhattan College Parkway, is one of hundreds in Riverdale that burned No. 6. At least it did until this summer, when the building underwent a conversion from No. 6 to a duel system of natural gas and No. 2 oil. If Con Edison shuts down the gas line, Durham’s building still wanted to have a heat source, hence the backup No. 2. Durham said the cost of the boiler is only the tip of the iceberg. Other expenses such as street work, pipes, a chimney sleeve and more can lead to a higher cost—all of which is taken on by landlords, building occupants or co-op shareholders. The cost of Durham’s building’s chimney sleeve was
$90,000. The chimney did not pass an integrity test, which determines the structure’s soundness to withhold gas. The chimney was still able to hold smoke. Stephen Budihas, president of the Association of Riverdale Cooperatives and Condominiums, is trying to do whatever he can to ease the costs. He’s pleaded with elected officials and city agencies, asking them to offer tax incentives and abatements for switching to the cleaner, more expensive oil or gas. ARC has more than 130 buildings in the 10463 and 10471 zip codes. Budihas said more than 70 percent of buildings in the area are co-ops, most of which are burning No. 6 heating oil. One idea he has been working on is convincing Con Edison to treat buildings on the same block as one entity during conversions. That means that when Con Edison has to dig up the street to replace the pipes, they will work on multiple buildings at once, significantly cutting costs. “Those costs are going to be hitting us forever,” Budihas said, noting that the amount of No. 4 oil it takes to heat a building is much more than what it takes for No. 6 to heat the same building. The current cost per gallon for No. 4 heating oil is about 55 cents more than for No. 6. Budihas said the long-term costs stemming from this
are “giant, absolutely giant,” and that the people of New York “have to have a plan for that, now.” Unfortunately, he’s been ignored left and right. State government officials told him to talk to the city. City officials told him to speak with the state. New York State Energy Research and Development Authority ran out of funding that was meant to help buildings convert. Con Edison has a small rebate program, but not enough to convert the entire city by 2015. City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell is open to extending the 2015 deadline and discussing possible tax incentives, according to a member of his staff, though the plan is still in the discussion phases. One City Council insider said buildings may just be able to ignore the deadline altogether, saying the penalties for not converting in time haven’t been clearly laid out yet. However, Durham touched upon that as a risky move, saying when someone is in charge of a 100-family building, taking the chance that the government won’t come in and shut down the heat in the dead of winter is too dangerous. Community Board 8 is working with Budihas, elected officials and housing experts to put together a forum— tentatively scheduled for the middle of December—to discuss the heating oil conversion and the hidden costs it will have on buildings and residents.
Delayed again, ‘dinky’ rink plan appears to be melting away By BRENDAN McHUGH A much-anticipated public forum on the proposed Van Cortlandt Park skating rink has been cancelled again, the fifth
time since the summer. The skating rink, originally scheduled to be up and running by November 1, hit a delay during the request for proposal
process, and the project has since been shrouded in mystery as the parks department continues to negotiate with a private contractor to bring The Bronx its first
KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ - Recently, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. joined state and city officials, as well as representatives of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, to announce that electric truck manufacturer Smith Electric Vehicles will soon open a new state of the art electric truck manufacturing facility at the former Port Morris lamp warehouse at 275 Locust Avenue. Smith Electric Vehicles hopes to create more than 100 local “green” jobs.
public rink in decades. Members of Community Board 8 have had a difficult time discussing the project, as many of the details can be known only after the Department of Parks and Recreation announces the winning proposal. Until then, only certain details—from the RFP requirements—are known. Some members of the community board expressed their disapproval over this roundabout process at last month’s general board meeting, and others said they’d like to see the public forum happen with or without the details, at the very least to see what kind of public opinion there is about the rink. The community board is holding the public forum so they will be able to offer a recommendation to the Franchise and Concessions Review Committee, which has the only official vote on the project’s survival. The FCRC holds monthly meetings but doesn’t promise much foresight into their agenda, so the community board has worked to plan meetings ahead of time to ensure their voice is heard at the FCRC. When the FCRC doesn’t put the skating rink on
its agenda, the community board then cancels the meeting. The FCRC is comprised of officials from city and mayoral agencies and from the borough president’s office. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who has been supportive of a skating rink in the borough but has been troubled by the lack of communication from the city about the project, was bothered to hear that the parks department still has yet to move forward. “We’re almost into December. How is it possible that we’re going to have it this season?” he asked. He did manage to find some humor in the situation, saying if they did try and have a skating rink up and running by November 1, it would have turned into a swimming pool with the recent unseasonably warm weather. In terms of the cancelled forum, he said it might be time to hold a meeting just to get public input and use the RFP as a guideline. The planned skating rink, first introduced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg during his State of the City address in January, will run Continued on Page 9