Report From RIOC's President - RIOC Board Nominees, Southpoint Park, Red Bus, Amalgamated Bank, No Ice Skating Rink This Winter& Other RI Issues

Imager From RIOC

RIOC President Steve Shane sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents. Mr. Shane addresses issues on RIOC Board Nominees, Southpoint Park, Amalgamated Bank opening, Red Bus Schedule, no ice skating rink this winter and other issues of concern to Roosevelt Island.

July 21, 2009

While the WIRE has been on Summer vacation, RIOC is chugging away on the following:

1. Board of Directors: No meetings scheduled during the Summer. The nominations of Margie Smith and Mike Shinozaki to the Board have been made by the Governor and forwarded to the NY State Senate for confirmation. They would replace Charlee Miller and Patrick Stewart. Dr. Grimm has been re-nominated. Given the state of the Senate, their confirmations will occur at some future date.
2. Southpoint: As to the projects:
(A) Renwick Ruins: Stabilization work is complete and the entrances to the building have been gated to secure the interior and prevent trespassing.
(B) Green Rooms/Wild Gardens: The contractor is completing Phase 1 rough grading, paths and stone walls. An RFP for Phase 2 will be issued to complete the park, including finish grading, capping, utilities, fencing and planting as soon as grades to meet MTA requirements for Strecker Lab and emergency exit are complete.
(C) FDR Memorial: Following Board Project approval in June, RIOC is in consultation with the State’s Division of the Budget and Parks Department and the City to work out funding mechanics for the $4 million State appropriation, the matching $4 million from the City and at least $8 million from FERI as necessary for Phase I. DEC permitting being integrated with GR/WG. Legal work on finalizing development relationship is in drafting.
3. Tram Overhaul: The schedule is now for a March 1, 2010 shutdown and end of August 2010 reopening. Sliding the shutdown period permits better coordination with architectural work for the two stations and avoids the holiday street closure and weather issues of working through the 2009/10 winter. See concept presentation of the proposed Tram stations on our web site.
4. Projects: Work is ongoing on many projects and others are being completed. Alex Snedkov has joined our engineering department as a senior project manager. Alex’s area of expertise is primarily in electrical and mechanical engineering.
5. Bank: Amalgamated Bank’s takeover of the NYNB space is completed and the branch has officially opened as of July 20. Welcome Amalgamated.
6. Southtown Buildings 5 and 6 are almost complete. Occupancy to commence within the next few weeks. Tram turnaround fountain under construction and should be operational by mid August.
7. Red Bus: The joint experiment with RIRA in AM scheduling is ongoing , although we have discontinued the collection of ridership statistics until school resumes in the Fall. The Octagon Local buses are scheduled to leave Octagon southbound at 8:55, 9:25, 9:55, 10:15, 10:35 and 10:55. Fire House Local buses will depart the Comfort Station southbound at 9:10 and 9:40. Buses arriving at the Tram before 10 will run continuously. A bus will meet the 10:00 Tram and each Tram thereafter before heading north. After 10AM, a 25 minute loop is built into the schedule. As the data is reviewed, we have expanded the experiment into the next earlier rush hour. A demonstrable result may be the ability to reduce the number of buses on the street after 10AM and before the afternoon rush hour to two (2) and still meet the schedule of an every 20 minute departure from Octagon and meeting the Tram. The schedule after 11:30 AM now so provides, as does the schedule after 8:30 PM. Savings on eliminating the extra bus during this period would be substantial.
8. Bridge Closures: The NYC Department of Transportation has notified us that the reconstruction work requiring complete closure of the bridge to vehicular and pedestrian traffic during July was completed without incident. As was previously done, EMS, police and fire responders were present on the Island. The Tram and red bus ran throughout the night.
9. Skating rink: Think Bryant Park. The previously imagined skating rink for Firefighters’ Field has been considered and put aside. The cost to RIOC of between $250,000 and $300,000 for a three month season is just not justifiable. Lefrak has a permanently installed facility in his Newport development in New Jersey and discussions with the Developer of Southtown when buildings 7, 8 and 9 go ahead might see it happen.
10. Sportspark: The weekly table tennis turnout on Wednesday evenings is growing. Come participate. The pool will be closed for about a month in the Fall for resurfacing.

This message was also published as the RIOC column in the 7/25/09 Main Street WIRE.