January 27, 2014
TO: All Shareholders
East River Housing CorporationFROM: Harold Jacob / Shulie Wollman
Re: Snow Storm UPDATE/ Conclusion
As the “Blizzard of 2015” concludes, we continue to clean sidewalks and pathways within the complex and have also addressed the clearing of the parking lots. PLEASE NOTE: We are aware that as residents dig out their cars from the lot, there is nowhere to place the snow except back in the main pathways for cars. We will continue to monitor these spots and clean the access lanes until all snow has been removed.
Please be patient with this process and we thank you for your understanding during this period.
Thank you.
Tag Archives: memo
When we get a note from our benevolent overlords, we’ll put it in this bin for posterity.
Memo: snow storm update
January 26, 2014
TO: All Shareholders
East River Housing CorporationFROM: Harold Jacob / Shulie Wollman
Re: Snow Storm UPDATE
Please be advised, due to the vehicle travel ban just imposed by New York City, we are re-prioritizing our snow clearing efforts from parking lots to sidewalks and pathways. Parking lots will be cleared later in the storm duration.
For those who have not heard, New York City has now prohibited automobile travel from 11PM this evening until further notice. Only emergency vehicles will be be allowed street access. We are prepared for the storm and have crews staying overnight to handle the snow accumulation.
Please stay indoors and please stay safe.
We will continue to keep you updated.
Thank you.
Memo: prepare for blizzard
A couple of emails from management today as we all look forward to a big storm:
January 25, 2014
TO: All Shareholders
East River Housing Corporation
Hillman Housing CorporationFROM: Shulie Wollman
Re: Snow Storm
We continue to monitor the snow predicted for Monday evening into Tuesday aftermoon.
Please be advised we will have a full maintenance crew clearing snow, salting sidewalks, driveways and parking lots. If the snow totals exceed 6”, parking lot gates will remain open to allow access for plows. Our boiler room will be staffed around the clock. If you have any problem, please contact us, but be aware that unless you have an emergency, we do not want to dispatch a staff person to your apartment for an issue that can be attended to on Wednesday.
Our numbers are below:
Maintenance: 212-677-5744
Boiler Room: 212-677-2767Thank you and Stay Safe
And then this one:
January 25, 2014
TO: All Shareholders
East River Housing Corporation
Hillman Housing CorporationFROM: Harold Jacob / Shulie Wollman
Re: Snow Storm UPDATE
We continue to monitor what is now being called a “significant snow event” anticipated for Monday through Tuesday evening in our area.
We urge all residents to use caution and common sense in preparing for this storm by having ample food and water on hand, sufficient enough for three – four days, and to absolutely limit the need to have to go out to the store for any particular item.
In addition, please anticipate your prescription needs in advance of the weather and secure all necessary medications as prescribed by your doctor for this period of time. As stated earlier we will have a full maintenance crew clearing snow, salting sidewalks, driveways and parking lots. However, it is quite possible that with the total predicted accumulation per hour, our crews as well as NYC crews will be overwhelmed and there will be a significant period of time where roads and walkways will be impassable.
Anyone with a bicycle chained to a street sign within our area should consider moving their property indoors for protection as well as safe navigation of all snow-removal equipment.
We will continue to keep you updated.
Thank you.
Memo: balcony inspections
Board member Lee Berman helps explain the memo posted from management about balcony inspections:
The City of New York recently enacted a law that requires inspection of balcony railings. This came about because of a faulty balcony railing in an apartment uptown, which broke while someone was leaning on it, resulting in a tragic death. Although our balconies are mostly brick, they do have a short railing. Therefore, they are subject to the required inspection. There will be scaffolding (not to be confused with “sidewalk sheds”) hung off the sides of the buildings and engineers will inspect the railings from those scaffolds.
Here’s a copy of that memo:
Bad timing, quick fix: early morning boiler room shutdown
At 5:45 this morning, management sent out the following email:
Please be advised that the Boiler Room is having and electrical problem with the boilers. The crews are in and working on this problem.
We apologize for this inconvenience.
Less than an hour later, this update:
We have repaired the electrical problem in the Boiler Room and the steam and hot water is starting to flow everybody should have heat and hot water by 8:30.
Again we apologize for this inconvenience.
And then another update at 8:15:
As said in my prior email everything has been completed and we are pushing the steam slowly so we do not overload the system. We will then be pushing out the hot water. By 11:00 we will be in full operation with the steam and hot water.
Again we apologize for this inconvenience.
Have a Good Day
(Are you on the coop email list? If not, you can sign up here.)
Afternoon update: here’s the full narrative of heroics from Gary Altman:
Memo: holiday gratuities
A memo was distributed yesterday acknowledging the long list of maintenance and security staff who work at the coop to help cooperators plan our holiday giving.
Do you tip for the holidays? How much do you normally give, and to whom?
Memo: board president alleges ‘mistruths’
Board president Gary Altman is out with a takedown of recent campaign literature:
Memo: Cooperatively Yours becomes a target
With the 2014 campaign now fully underway, even Mr. Jacob wants a piece of the action with today’s response to our provocative questions distributed prior to the Meet the Candidates forum on Monday.
Coop financial statements for fiscal years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 are available online, so you can see what he’s talking about yourself. In both 2011 and 2012, the coop shows an operational deficit, meaning that expenses were greater than income. That’s actual expenses, not counting depreciation or amortization.
I know one prospective buyer last year whose mortgage application was turned down because the lending bank had misgivings about those deficits. Even if the coop looks better a year later with flip taxes from a resurgent housing market bailing us out, the underlying concern about our financial stability has not been resolved.
But, please, let’s look at this another way, because I’m not interested in having a shouting match with Mr. Jacob or anyone else. Cooperatively Yours decided this past spring to encourage communication with the board and management. That means asking questions in a more public way to hold our directors accountable, and pressing them to distribute quarterly reports of board actions and hold mid-year financial Q&A’s so that these kinds of issues can be discussed more constructively. To that end, I’m very grateful to Mr. Jacob for his memo, because it opens a conversation about what kind of a deficit may be beneficial and what kind is unsustainable.
One of the questions our flyer asked on Monday was: “The coop’s deficit grows every year — now almost $11 million. Are you OK with that?” Mr. Jacob says that because that figure represents what’s called accumulated deficit it’s actually not an unhealthy number and therefore, yes, he’s OK with it. That’s a perfectly good answer. I would rather it had come without bold-faced all-caps name-calling, but I think this is progress, and this Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for it — let’s get answers first and we’ll work on our manners another time.
Memo: Update to water test and kWh rates
Email from management yesterday:
Dear East River Cooperators:
We have received numerous comments regarding the water test results that we sent out on November 19. Please be advised that the laboratory will be doing a second round of testing to make sure the water meets the highest standards. We will post the new report as well.
On a positive note, let us bring it to your attention that the December month delivery charge for electricity will be 50% lower, 7.57¢/kWh (in comparison with 15.56¢/kWh in the month of November) bringing your total electric charge for the month of December to 18.82¢/kWh. Therefore, your electric bill will be significantly reduced (reminder, in December you are charged for the September electric usage).
Sincerely,
H. Jacob
First of all, I didn’t think the water tests needed an update — no E.Coli is a good thing, right? — I thought we were still waiting for an answer about the decreased water pressure. Maybe management has moved on.
Second, this bit about the electric bill is still unexplained. Browsing through the ConEd schedule of rates for delivery service that one cooperator brought to our attention, it’s clear that there can be considerable variability in this charge based on usage, overall energy consumption, state and local taxes, even the season. Are these rate changes now more extreme? Or is Mr. Jacob just bringing something to our attention that has always been happening?
Memo: Major change to Shabbos elevators
Programmable and more flexible Shabbos elevators are coming to East River before the end of the year, according to a notice distributed to all apartments this afternoon.
This change has been a frequent request at the annual meeting, and follows a similar adjustment in Hillman.
Cooperators who want the elevator to stop on their floor need to request it in writing to management by December 16. Automatic elevators will be programmed to stop on only the floors where a request has been made, instead of every floor. In addition, non-observant cooperators will be able to press the button for their floor, as they would any other day.
Update: management has posted the request form online.
