Tower Times November 2022

Serving the residents of North Shore Towers since 1995

Club and Vendors Fair

Sunday, October 23rd at Towers on the Green

New Country Club Manager

Maryann Langone’s tenure as the North Shore Towers Country Club Manager ended on Wednesday, September 28th, with Coco Xie appointed as her replacement.

“We are grateful to Maryann for her years of service to our community and truly wish her success and happiness in her future endeavors,” Interim NST General Manager Desi Ndreu wrote in a letter to the community.

Xie is experienced in the health services industry and has a background as a CPA. She is a trainer in multiple fitness regimens and has experience running similar types of facilities. “Coco has a deep understanding and appreciation of the importance of good, collaborative management combined with good customer service to ensure the success of this kind of business,” Ndreu said.

Management is “taking a fresh look” at North Shore Towers according to Ndreu and is “working hard to help restore North Shore Towers and the Country Club to its rightful competitive place in today’s market.” Ndreu called the Country Club one of the premier amenities at the co-op.

“To accomplish this, we will be looking for innovative approaches to coordinating, managing, running, and marketing every aspect of the country club business to ensure that it runs like a successful luxury business on every level, which will increase the value to current residents and attract new ones,” she said.

With Xie’s business expertise and a demonstrated record of increasing membership participation, Ndreu said she is enthusiastic about future changes at the club.

New North Shore Towers Country Club Manager Coco Xie.

Lorraine Panasci, Rhonda Schorr, and JoAnn Gordon.

Men’s Club President Toby Horowitz.

Women’s Club Co-Presidents Chickie Kaufman, Gloria Beck.

Callie Moliviatis representing the VIP Room restaurant.

JACK SCHWARZ

PHOTOS

Women’s Club Discusses 1st Ladies

By Vicki Mazel

The downstairs card room was filled with mem bers of the Women’s Club on Wednesday,

October 12th, to hear a lecture by Profes sor Ron Brown on the famous and infa mous First Ladies. Professor Brown is a noted historian and speaker in many fields, including ethnic studies, world religions, international relations as well as different aspects of historical interest.

After an introduction by co-president Gloria Beck, Brown started with Martha Washington and traced the first capital of the U.S. to New York and the first presi dent’s inauguration on April 30th, 1789. In a world of kings and queens, the first presi dent and his First Lady moved to NY from Virginia. Titles were varied and not fully formed at that time, so he was addressed as “Your highness,” “Your Majesty,” “His Elected Majesty,” Your Excellency,” and finally, “Mr. President.” In the Constitution there is no title of nobility granted, and Lady Washington simply became known as The First Lady by her husband George. Although she was a strong person, she wanted to go back to the civilization of her familiar Virginia.

Abigail Adams became the next First Lady to inhabit the White House. A Boston aristocrat, she was strong willed and wrote letters to her husband to remember the women. She is quoted as saying: “Wom en will not hold ourselves bound by any

laws in which we have no voice or repre sentation.” Sounding much like a modern woman of today, she had a strong political conscience and was involved in women’s rights and slavery issues of young men.

Professor Brown discussed Dolly Madi son, a new type of first lady. Coming from a wealthy family, she was well dressed, had style, and believed the White House should be a place of luxury. In contrast to other wives the paramour of Andrew Jack son had little class, and the residence was involved in alcohol, affairs and corruption, Along came Mary Todd Lincoln from Il linois who was subject to tragic physical and mental health issues. Each first lady putting their stamp on the atmosphere and their husbands tenure.

In speaking of Lucy Hayes, wife of Rutherford B. Hayes, Brown cited that she was intelligent, and a devoutly religious Methodist. It was the late 1800s, and Wes leyan University was the first college to give degrees to women. Her puritanical in fluence included anti-alcohol, anti-divorce, anti-gambling, and anti-slavery. Nick named the “Lemonade Lady,” her views permeated the halls of the House and had its impact.

First ladies continued to inhabit the White House, changing with every presi dential election, and many have left their imprint on our politics and our society. Many first ladies of power were central in pushing for women’s rights; education, the vote, divorce, child custody, and bank ac counts, to name a few.

Described as one of the most influential First Ladies, Professor Brown spoke about Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant cousin of Franklin who served from 1933-1945. She was highly educated and was behind an in tegrated military, and also responsible for the shaping of post war liberalism. FDR was beginning to fail, Stalin was taking advantage of him, and Eleanor influenced many of his decisions. She was a major supporter of the United Nations and bring ing it to Manhattan, as well as a founder of the U.N. Charter.

As presidential history continued, a post-war new world was developing in suburbia. John F. Kennedy emerged as the new leader and his wife was revered for poise and dignity, not activism. “Father Knows Best” and “My Three Sons” were TV hits. Levittown living came about in 1957, while Mrs. Kennedy was busy re doing the White House. She was close to royalty in the public’s eye, and her cloth ing and style influenced fashion. The world also admired her dignity in facing her hus

band’s tragic death.

Another First Lady of note is Hill ary Clinton. Born in 1947, she attended Wellesley, and graduated Yale Law School in 1973. She and Bill Clinton married in 1975. As a First Lady, she was outspoken, had her own career, and was elected a Senator 2001-2009. She became Secretary of State under President Obama in 20092013, and was the first female to be nomi nated for the presidency.

Like Hilary Clinton, Michele Obama also created many firsts for First Ladies, including being the first African-American woman to have the position. A graduate of Princeton University undergrad and Har vard Law School, she balanced a public role being a wife and mother and First Lady as well.

Citing other First Ladies of note, Brown remarked that women have been neglected in the study of history. A lively question and answer period followed with audience members bringing up First Ladies that had been omitted from the slide and section presentation. The Professor’s programs are always well received, and we look forward to his appearance in our future lecture se ries. Stay tuned.

Cinema Club: Great Review for Speaker

Kudos to filmmaker Stewart Schul man for his professional and interesting movie review of “My Octopus Teacher,” aired on September 28th on Channel 995. Schulman, a Towers resident, appeared as a guest speaker for the Women’s Club on the cinema review program of the docu mentary. An award winning filmmaker, producer and documentarian, he generous ly gave of his time and enriched our show with this expertise. Response to his appear ance has been enthusiastic and positive as he described documentaries as recordings of news events into factual material for education or entertainment. Schulman also cited how production choices factor into the story telling. Even quoting Aristotle, Schulman gave the club and Towers view ers a major informative program and we hope to invite back again soon.

The next film review by Vicki Mazel, Dr. Nurit Israeli and Gloria Beck will be “When Harry Met Sally,” on Channel 995 at 4:00 pm on Monday, November 28th. The Netflix film stars Billy Crystal and Meg Rya, directed by Rob Reiner, and written by Nora Ephron. It addresses the question, “Can men and women ever be just friends?” Following 12 years of chance and sometimes planned meetings, is the is sue ever resolved? With a soundtrack from Harry Connick, Jr, and interesting and fun

ny dialogue, you won’t want to miss this review. Tune in.

So What’s Next?

Under the leadership of co-president Chickie Kaufman and Gloria Beck, the Women’s Club remains in active pursuit of presenting an intelligent and varied ros ter of events. Some in the planning stages, include: Nassau County Museum of ArtPhoto Exhibition and lunch at Ben’s. Date to be determined.

Hobby and Game Day: Workshops in the works including cards, crafts, etc. Thursday, November 3rd. Thomas Ger mano “The Art of Edward Hopper,” Large Card Room, 7:15 pm. Hopper was a realist painter and printmaker widely known for his oil paintings, and was equally as profi cient in watercolors, printmaking and etch ing. His work is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art starting Wednes day, October 19th.

Our holiday party, “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend,” will be held Wednes day, December 14th, featuring the Vic Vin cent Trio at Towers On The Green. Look for time and details in next issue of this newspaper, on door of the Towers Restau rant, on screens in lobbies, and posters in mailroom. Dinner, music, holiday fun, so dress up.

Use your Women’s Club discounts. 10 percent at the Towers Restaurant once daily on bill of $15 and over. North Shore Towers Car Spa, Goody $5 off car wash.

Verse by Vicki Time Marches On Now’s the time for local living, Holiday it’s soon Thanksgiving. No need to be nervous or jerky, Just don’t forget to stuff the turkey!

Many messages to send, Daylight Savings comes to an end. Another even not to delay, Celebrate noted Veteran’s Day.

Summer days become an ember, Welcome in the month of November. Masks are still worn in the corridor. And residents go down to Florida.

Another date don’t try to dally, Watch review of “When Harry Met Sally.” In show biz they say “Break a Leg”, That says it for Billy and Meg.

So here are our November greetings, Don’t forget to join our meetings. Helping you pass interesting hours, Women’s Club of North Shore Towers!

Cinema Club with Stewart Schulman.

Necessary and Healthy Change at NST

By Cheryl Vollweiler Secretary NST Board of Directors

As I write this, it has been 120 days since this board took office. Hap pily, most of the feed back has been positive and forward thinking,

for which the board and I are deeply grateful. While there will always be some healthy, productive disagreement (reason able minds can differ), some more recent feedback has been less productive. My goal here is to help you understand what the NST community and this board is cur rently facing, why we are approaching things the way we are, and why changes, while not always easy, are both necessary and healthy for the community.

Some of my favorite ancient philoso phers are helpful to put things in perspec tive. Heraclitus said, “There is nothing permanent except change.” (That’s true.) Socrates said, “The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” (Your board is working hard at doing just that.) Lao Tzu wisely said, “If you do not change direc

tion, you may end up where you are go ing.” (Making sure we are heading in the right direction is this Board’s top priority, and why I am tackling this topic.)

When we took office, we promised to carefully, methodically scrutinize every expense, contract, vendor, and relationship to ensure important items are addressed, waste and duplication are eradicated, and cost-efficiencies are maximized to the greatest extent possible. In the process of doing so, here is what we have discovered so far: our well-manicured lawns, beautiful landscaping, and floors so clean you can eat off them, have been hiding decades of infrastructure and other inaction or neglect. As a result, this board’s “triage” buckets are labeled “critical,” “urgent,” and “ex tremely important,” and we have found very little on the “to do” list that can be tabled for the long term.

The best way to explain this is to give you a peek at the highlights of our actual “to do” list so you can understand the mag nitude of the work to be done:

•Garage work: Currently in Phase 1, which was initially scoped as emergency work only. To avoid moving the same cars again in two years, we expanded the scope of Phase 1 to maximize productivity/cost-

efficiency, minimize inconvenience to the affected residents, and decrease the overall length of the project. Now that we know what we know, we will be making similar changes for future phases too.

•Local Law 11: This is required by NYC law and must be done on a set sched ule every few years. We discovered that the present Cycle 9 work included overlaps/ deficiencies in the Cycle 8 work, which no one noticed before (warranty claims).

•Underground storage tanks: This must be completed by March 2023. This was known for years and could have been com pleted at any time, but it wasn’t. We are now down to the wire and must comply with the deadline.

•Garage and arcade wi-fi: People have been clamoring for this safety feature for years, but the answer was always “can’t be done,” “impossible,” or “it’s too expen sive.” We are getting it done for a reason able cost and the work is expected to be complete by the end of 2022.

•Elevators: This is also mandated by NYC law, has a January 1, 2027 deadline for completion, will be expensive and in convenient, and has been known and dis cussed at NST for years, but nothing was done until this board. Now it’s a race for

the vendors who can handle a project of this magnitude on the necessary timeline, since every single building in NYC is fac ing the same deadline

•Window replacement: Enough said.

•Local Law 97: NYC law requires that we undertake significant efforts to reduce our carbon emissions. The likelihood of an exemption is very low, compliance is mandatory, and there are heavy fines for non-compliance. We are the first Board to address this.

•Lighting efficiency: LED bulbs were installed about 7-8 years ago, but we found out in October 2022 that it was not a stateof-the-art update, so significant energy savings and carbon footprint reduction is still needed. We have 7,000 light fixtures in our public areas that must be addressed, exclusive of apartment lighting.

•Arcade renovations: Some like to think this is not urgent, but aging flooring is a safety issue, a modern appearance goes to your home value, and elevator moderniza tion may warrant changes to the elevator lobbies so it will make the arcade reno, or at least a facelift, even more important and timely.

•Roofs. You may not have thought a

Management/Co-op Bd. Relationship

By Richard Levine Capital Improvements Chairman

The most critical relationship in operating a multifamily, residential, cooperative community is between its Board of Directors and the prop

erty’s management company. This is es pecially true in a community as large and with a variety of features and amenities as those that enhance life at North Shore Tow ers.

NST is accurately described as a mixeduse property situated on an approximately 110-acre, well-landscaped site. Few com peting locations are better located and more appealing. I say this as a lifelong resident of Long Island with a long history of direct involvement in real estate devel opment, finance, and appraisal.

Those currently residing at NST appre ciate the enhancements that distinguish it from most New York Metropolitan resi

dential properties. These include a variety of retail establishments and personal ser vice businesses, a movie theatre, two res taurants, and party areas, all offering direct access to residents without venturing out into inclement weather.

The potpourri of recreational facilities are unique to NST, ranging from an 18hole golf course, tennis courts, pickleball, indoor and outdoor pools, well-appointed gymnasiums, and various card rooms and rooms in which to meet.

A particularly unique and beneficial amenity of NST is the electricity plant that furnishes all of the community’s power needs. No matter the weather, the approxi mately 2,500 residents are secure in know ing that power will be available to them. This is especially important to those with special health needs.

One can recognize that NST, because of its size and physical complexity, demands that board members, the management com pany, and the staff be sophisticated, experi enced, and dedicated to working in concert. Together we keep the property efficiently

serving the residents and maintaining and improving the three high-rise, fireproof residential towers, the three-level, under ground, 2,500-unit parking garage, and all the indoor and outdoor amenities and fa cilities. To put things in perspective, NST is an approximately $1 billion enterprise that should be run to reflect the value of the complex.

While the buildings are reaching 50 years of age, in the past, some of the need ed capital improvements were postponed to minimize expenditures. However, those expenditures eventually had to be made to keep up with safety issues, the need to compete with newer buildings, and man dated changes involving the building com ponents and structures. Examples are:

•Garage repairs.

•Elevator updates.

•The removal and replacement of un derground fuel tanks.

•Replacement of circuit breaker boxes.

•Redecorating the arcade and the public hallways.

•Replacing some of the electric genera

tors.

In June of 2022, three new candidates were elected to two-year terms, while current board member, Ed Phelan, was re-elected to the board and selected by directors to resume his former position as President. The new board members, Jeff Canarick, Cheryl Vollweiler, and Harry Greenberg, are all highly qualified pro fessionals bringing a fresh perspective to the board at a critical time when the major capital improvements program is under way. They join existing directors Barry Berman, Martin Schwartzman, Jim Short, Theresa Oropallo, and this writer, as well as President Phelan.

All Board Members’ credentials should be reassuring to this community. The di rectors share abundant knowledge and experience in marketing, accounting, risk management, law, real estate, finance, construction, banking, and property opera tions.

About three months ago, the long-time General Manager of NST retired. Desi

Ndreu, a senior executive with Greenthal Management Co., has been installed as the Interim General Manager while a perma nent GM is being sought.

An examination of the relationship be tween the board, the management compa ny, and the GM is important as we contem plate the extensive capital improvement program that is underway. The board is re sponsible as a Fiduciary to act on behalf of the shareholders. Its approval is necessary to proceed with the various programs and improvements that are contemplated.

The management company has con tracted with NST to provide defined man agement services. They must follow the contract and deliver the defined services as the board directs. The board may seek their advice from time to time, but the board has the final word. Typically, the GM, employed by the management company, interfaces with the board. However, other management company members may ren

der services to NST and must keep attuned to the activities between the management company and the community.

Much has been accomplished since the new board was in place. An agreement was reached with the John Hancock Life Insur ance Company to recast the maturing first fee mortgage on favorable terms providing the community with additional funds to help pay for the capital improvements. The garage remediation is underway, and the Local Law 11 exterior work is progressing.

An ancient proverb states that every meaningful journey begins with the first steps. Your board has initiated those steps, and more steps will follow. Whenever pos sible, we will share those steps with you. Remember, we are mindful that we serve you, the shareholders. We are committed to making our community as comfortable, attractive, safe, and suitable a place to call “home” as possible while keeping it on a sound financial foundation.

Signature Smiles for North Shore Towers

North Shore Towers Dental Care

Dr. Abraham G. Borenstein, DDS of North Shore Towers Dental (formerly in the Arcade)

HAS HANDED THE TORCH TO Drs. Yuval & Daniela Spector

Friendly Staff. Excellent Service. Beautiful Smiles.

At Signature Smiles many patients choose to obtain their general, cosmetic, implant and senior dental needs. Drs. Yuval and Daniela Spector and their extraordinary team take the utmost pride in providing an optimal dental experience, from your initial consultation through the final results. We seek to provide the highest quality dental care to the North Shore Towers community in a safe, relaxing environment with special attention to patient comfort and safety.

Signature Smiles offers multi-specialty dental care in one great location, providing a high level of convenience. We specialize in Periodontics (gum disease) treatment, Dental Implants (tooth replacement) and Endodontics (root canals). Our patients receive comprehensive and thorough treatment. We strive to educate our patients and the community, about various cosmetic dental procedures, such as veneers, life-like crowns, implants, teeth whitening and other latest advances in dentistry. We stand behind every treatment we perform.

For nearly two decades our strength lies in the fact that we take time to get to know our patients and encourage them to candidly discuss their oral health issues. We listen to your dental concerns and provide excellent General, Restorative, Implant, Cosmetic and family dental care in a professional and comfortable surrounding, using high-tech dentistry. www.signature-smile.com

We value your quality time and therefore schedule your appointment with minimal waiting. Our team continues to enhance the smile image of many loyal patients at North Shore Towers. Let us enhance your image and self-confidence by creating a beautiful and healthy smile.

Smiles

about it, but we have. The roofs on all three buildings will need to be redone in the next few years, and we will need to “think green.”

•Computer system: Our computer system is current if we lived in the early 1980s. Our documents are not digitized, and our department computers do not “speak” to each other. Up dating the computer system is a major, urgent undertaking for multiple reasons.

•Circuit breakers: We have an unknown number of Federal Pacific circuit breakers at NST, which have been known to be defective since at least 2012 and no later than 2017. Why do we still have them? I don’t know, but we are working on identifying them and will be replacing them asap.

•TCOs: TCOs on two buildings lapsed more than five years ago when an architect walked off the job, but management never replaced them or finished the work, or even renewed the TCOs to keep it open. How do we know? The bank found it on their mortgage renewal due diligence. Now it’s an action item that required hiring an expediter.

•Compliance with rooftop antenna lease: That’s part of the TCO issue too. No one followed up on the rooftop antenna lease compliance since 2016 despite the NST Shareholder Associa tion’s repeated warnings. Well, now it’s urgent.

•Tennis court sprinklers: Apparently, these have needed re pair for some time but it was never addressed. Why? The answer was “it’s a million dollars.” We’re going to get estimates, be cause broken stuff has to get fixed.

•Pool repairs: These are needed to fix improper work done the last time the pool was repaired. It should have been done be fore the pools were closed, but instructions were ignored. Now it has to be completed before the pool reopens in May.

•Electric meter replacement: This has been the subject of

discussion around here for years. Self-reading electric meters would free up three full-time employees to do other jobs on the premises. Desi identified vendors. This Board is now reviewing proposals.

•Electric car chargers: Same story. For years the community was told “too expensive,” “no place to put them,” or “can’t be done.” It turns out that isn’t true either (and we are exploring whether there may be a way to generate extra electricity to sell back to ConEd for a profit). This board has undertaken a feasi bility study and we will keep you posted.

•Headcount. Desi has requested job descriptions for all em ployees in all departments and is reviewing staffing to ensure that our staff is being properly and fully utilized to efficiently and effectively staff and service the premises considering the present conditions we are learning exist. Surprisingly, this hasn’t been done since and we don’t even know when.

•Contractors: We have a contractor who gets a flat five-figure monthly fee, so we asked to see the contract. Turns out there isn’t one. Job description? Nope. Schedule for the rest of the year, perhaps? Uh-uh.Not required. Wondering how many other six-figure contracts we have with zero cost controls or account ability? Us too. We’re investigating that now so we can imple ment reasonable cost controls and accountability.

•Duplication/waste: We are examining whether there are jobs our in-house crews can do instead of paying outside contractors.

•Building Link: Bet you thought it was just a fancy electronic bulletin board, right? It turns out this is a very powerful software package with many features and options that may satisfy many/ most of NST’s social media wish list items. Why didn’t anyone know about this before? Prior management disabled those func tions. We will be meeting with our account manager to explore how we can best use it to meet our needs.

•E-Reservations/Credit card payments: We discovered last week that prior management has been paying hundreds per month for a software program that literally no one knew about but may be able to do all or most of the things on our Coun

try Club wish list (from taking credit card payments to on-line registration for gym classes, guests, and events). What was it being used for? Nothing. Who bought it? Don’t know. Why was it purchased? No idea. But it’s already ours, so we are going to meet with this account rep as well to see how we can maximize our surprise “investment.”

I will stop here and remind you this is not an exhaustive list but only some examples of the most urgent things your Board is addressing right now, either because the law requires it, for safety reasons, or because decades of inaction or neglect have left us no choice but to address deteriorating, unsafe or outdated conditions now or in the near future, and practical consider ations call for doing certain things at the same time to maximize efficiencies.

Getting everything done right requires insight, flexibility, and the ability to embrace changes of many kinds, including changes of plans, mindsets, goals, expectations, experts, mate rials, timing projections, contracts, vendors, cost expectations, management, teams, and staffing, to ensure that everything that needs to get done, gets done the to the best of our abilities, in the most cost-efficient way possible, to protect our investment and our lifestyle.

We also recognize that change is not easy for many reasons. We are working hard to keep you advised, including these col umns, weekly 995 addresses from everyone on the board, blast emails, and effective this week, full board meeting minutes available on Building Link or from the Management Office. But as the ancient Greek and Chinese philosophers said, change is both necessary and inevitable to stay healthy.

Knowing now what needs to get done, we ask only that you keep an open mind and stay flexible. Reasonable minds can dif fer, so please come talk to us (any board member) any time–we are always open to productive discussion and suggestions, and we welcome your input.

See you around the Arcade.

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NORTH SHORE TOWERS offers a sought-after first-class residential destination with a spectacular combination of exceptional amenities. PRIVATE 18 HOLE GOLF COURSE, 5 LIT HAR TRU TENNIS COURTS, CARD ROOMS, CLUBS, STATEOF-THE-ART GYM AND HEALTH SPA WITH AEROBICS CLASSES, HOT TUB, SUANA, STEAM ROOMS, INDOOR AND OUTDOOR POOLS, AND CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND.

Enjoy an indoor arcade mall that features a large variety of shops, including restaurants, Chase Bank, movie theatre, pharmacy, supermarket, fruit and vegetable store, and beauty salon. Additionally, enjoy the peace of mind of FULL-TIME GENERATORS–NEVER BE WITHOUT POWER.

Only at NORTH SHORE TOWERS can residents have a resort lifestyle with all the comforts of home! Both a courtesy bus to local shopping and an express MTA bus to Manhattan stop at your front door. Be surrounded by amazing amenities and a dedicated professional service-oriented staff! If you seek a unique blend of city and country club living, to discover this hidden gem, please call ANNETTE KROLL, the only resale broker with 35 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, SPECIALIZING in apartment sales at NORTH SHORE TOWERS! Your dream lifestyle awaits! A whole new world is only a phone call away, (718) 631-8867 when you call for a personal tour to have ANNETTE help you find the home of your dreams!