Vol. 60 No. 10
March 8, 2025
$1.25
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Virtual Income Affidavit Information Seminar Scheduled for March 18 Sessions being Planned for JASA Senior Centers
By ROZAAN BOONE
A virtual Income Affidavit Information Sesson will be held on Zoom on Tuesday evening, March 18, 7-8 p.m. for shareholders to learn more about the electronic filing option and to get general questions answered about the annual process. Riverbay Assistant Executive General Manager Cary Smith III, who has been leading the electronic Income Affidavit filing initiative, said that at the Feb. 25th information session, requests were made for day-time sessions to accommodate senior shareholders who prefer not to attend the evening sessions, and to attend the sessions in-person. As a result, Mr. Smith is working
with directors of the three JASA senior centers operating in Co-op City to arrange for when he and the Income Affidavit team, which consists of Riverbay director of Finance, Averil James-Bonnette; Riverbay IT Computer Support Analyst Kevin Sherard; and representatives from Capstone Strategy Group— the vendor Riverbay collaborated with to digitize the Income Affidavit form— can present to senior shareholders. Once set, this information will be publicized in the newspaper, on the Crawler, and also at the Bartow, Einstein and Dreiser JASA senior centers. For now, shareholders who wish to attend the upcoming March 18th virtual Information Session on the (Continued on page 2)
False Fire Alarms
BY DANIELLE CRUZ
In recent months, Co-op City community centers have been experiencing an uptick in false fire alarms. These alarms are triggered by individuals activating one of the fire alarm pull stations that are located at every exit in the centers. Once activated, the fire alarm is then sent throughout the whole building and the surrounding businesses and automatically alerts the local fire department. According to Riverbay Safety Director Anthony Barzelatto, in just the past two months, FDNY Engine 66 has responded to three false fire alarms that were triggered in the community centers. These false alarms not only cause unnecessary disruptions to the centers and local businesses but also can lead to injuries as people evacuate the building. They also prevent the local fire department from responding to any actual fires that might happen elsewhere in the community. “If there was another fire somewhere in Co-op City, an actual fire, the units that have responded to Dreiser can't leave,” explained Barzelatto, “because they have to investigate the fire alarm for Dreiser. So that means now you're going to be waiting for another company that’s blocks and blocks away to come to an actual fire in Coop City, and now you're risking lives. For what? Because you thought it was funny to pull a fire alarm?” These false alarms also result in Riverbay receiving a fine for each false (Continued on page 4)
Fair Fares Transitions to OMNY By BRANDON ORTIZ
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Fair Fares customers can soon switch to OMNY after New York City announced the first phase of the full transition to contactless payment on February 26. Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Social Services Commissioner (DSS) Molly Wascow Park delivered the announcement. As the MTA continues transitioning to the OMNY contactless payment system, a key part of that progress will be including Fair Fares customers in the OMNY payment infrastructure. Prior to the announcement on February 26, the MTA implemented a pilot program in May of 2024 to test the effectiveness and feasibility of expanding Fair Fares using OMNY. Fifty Fair Fares users participated in the 90-day pilot program, as reported by the MTA, during which the MTA collected feedback on each participant’s experience and analyzed the effectiveness of the pilot. The pilot program was a collaborative effort between the MTA and DSS. Logistically, the MTA provided pilot program participants with a specialized OMNY card that had the Fair Fares discount already included in it. Participants then used and refilled the OMNY card similarly to a MetroCard and had the discount automatically applied when they (Continued on page 6)