515 Edgecombe Cooperative

HOMEOWNER’S INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS

HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE

The House Rules require all share­hold­ers to acquire Home Own­ers Insur­ance. The House Rules state:

“All Lessees must obtain com­pre­hen­sive Home Own­ers Insur­ance Lia­bil­i­ty Cov­er­age for any and all apart­ments or shares they own. A copy of the cer­tifi­cate of Home own­ers Insur­ance Lia­bil­i­ty must be sub­mit­ted to the Board of the Lessor or des­ig­nat­ed Man­ag­ing agent.”

WHY YOU NEED TO BE INSURED AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

(The fol­low­ing arti­cle by Robert E. Mack­oul, founder and Pres­i­dent of Mack­oul and Asso­ciates, pro­vides some basic infor­ma­tion on the­Home Own­ers Insur­ance. Please con­tact your insur­ance agent for advice and com­plete infor­ma­tion on the avail­able insur­ance.)

Many coop­er­a­tive and con­do­mini­um dwellers tend to think that they don’t need home­own­ers insur­ance. This is gen­er­al­ly due to two basic mis­con­cep­tions: the first, that they do not need home­own­ers insur­ance because the build­ing already has cov­er­age; the sec­ond, that since banks and mort­gage com­pa­nies don’t require home­own­ers insur­ance in a coop­er­a­tive or con­do­mini­um, such cov­er­age is not a neces­si­ty.

These beliefs are not only wrong, but they can also be dan­ger­ous. Build­ing insur­ance rarely pro­vides cov­er­age with­in units them­selves. And while banks may not stip­u­late home­own­ers insur­ance as a req­ui­site when mak­ing a loan, that’s cold com­fort if a fire or oth­er cat­a­stro­phe ren­ders your apart­ment tem­porar­i­ly unin­hab­it­able.

The issue is not whether you should have home­own­ers insur­ance, but how much cov­er­age you should secure. For co-op share­hold­ers and con­do unit own­ers, the ide­al pol­i­cy should cov­er the basics:

Improve­ments and Alter­ations, Con­tents and Per­son­al Effects, Loss of Use cov­er­age for extra expens­es that arise from being tem­porar­i­ly unable to occu­py the unit fol­low­ing a claim, Per­son­al Lia­bil­i­ty to pro­tect against law­suits from oth­er par­ties or insur­ance com­pa­nies, and Assess­ment Cov­er­age. IMPROVEMENTS AND ALTERATIONS

In a coop­er­a­tive or con­do­mini­um, improve­ments and alter­ations that are with­in the unit are the unit owner’s or shareholder’s respon­si­bil­i­ty. These improvements/alterations are not cov­ered under the building’s insur­ance pol­i­cy.

If there is a claim, the building’s insur­ance com­pa­ny is respon­si­ble for the build­ing itself and the infra­struc­ture, the pipes and elec­tri­cal wiring inside the walls. When it comes to the indi­vid­ual unit, the insur­ance com­pa­ny is only required to put the apart­ment “back to spec”; that is, exact­ly how it was when it was built. Thus, all the updates to a spe­cif­ic unit that have occurred since the build­ing was first built are the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the cur­rent own­er, and not the build­ing. This includes new bath­rooms and kitchens, floor­ing and car­pet­ing, and mold­ing put in by the cur­rent own­er. In addi­tion, the cur­rent share­hold­er is respon­si­ble for all the improve­ments and alter­ations done by pre­vi­ous own­ers.

If, for instance, the floor­ing in a unit had been in place since the building’s incep­tion, that would be cov­ered under the building’s insur­ance. How­ev­er, espe­cial­ly with old­er build­ings, the prob­a­bil­i­ty of hav­ing a unit with all its orig­i­nal fea­tures intact is rather low. The build­ing insur­ance com­pa­ny will not pay for these alter­ations and repairs. This is where homeowner’s cov­er­age specif­i­cal­ly for improve­ments and alter­ations comes in; if prop­er­ly planned, it will cov­er all the alter­ations and improve­ments in a unit, regard­less of who put them in.

PERSONAL PROPERTY
Share­hold­ers or unit own­ers are respon­si­ble for insur­ing all of their apartment’s con­tents and per­son­al prop­er­ty. This includes every­thing from fur­nish­ings to kitchen­ware to cloth­ing – any­thing that can be moved around, picked up, and tak­en. What can’t be moved, such as bath­room fix­tures and kitchen cab­i­nets, qual­i­fy as improve­ments and alter­ations.

Per­son­al prop­er­ty cov­er­age should be ade­quate to meet the cost of replac­ing items today, as opposed to the cost when they were orig­i­nal­ly pur­chased. If some­thing that is con­sid­ered per­son­al prop­er­ty is destroyed and there is no replace­ment cost cov­er­age, the insur­ance com­pa­ny will depre­ci­ate the loss and great­ly reduce the com­pen­sa­tion for the dam­aged item. For exam­ple, a tele­vi­sion pur­chased for $500 five years ago, with­out replace­ment costs, would be worth $250 today (assum­ing that the use­ful life of a tele­vi­sion is 10 years). But with replace­ment cov­er­age, the insur­ance would cov­er the full cost of a new tele­vi­sion. As a rule of thumb when decid­ing on the lev­el of cov­er­age for your new insur­ance pol­i­cy, you should typ­i­cal­ly esti­mate how much all your per­son­al prop­er­ty and apart­ment con­tents are worth and then dou­bling that val­ue.

LOSS OF USE
In the event of seri­ous dam­age to your unit, you will need mon­ey to live else­where. This is pro­vid­ed for under a part of the homeowner’s pol­i­cy called “loss of use”. In insur­ance poli­cies for coop­er­a­tives, lim­it­ed loss of use only cov­ers 40 per­cent of the total per­son­al prop­er­ty cov­er­age amount. If your prop­er­ty is insured for $100,000, the max­i­mum loss of use com­pen­sa­tion that you could receive would be $40,000.

If repairs to the unit go on for an extend­ed peri­od of time, which they often do, this may not be enough to cov­er liv­ing expens­es – espe­cial­ly the high cost of liv­ing in New York. This is why it is best to have an unlim­it­ed loss of use pol­i­cy. This fea­ture comes stan­dard with the plans offered by Chubb and Fireman’s Fund, and most oth­er com­pa­nies will allow the home­own­er to buy up their unlim­it­ed cov­er­age.

Unlim­it­ed loss of use cov­er­age may be the most impor­tant fea­ture of your pol­i­cy. Con­sid­er the sto­ry of a co-op build­ing in Man­hat­tan: In the late 1990s, the pent­house res­i­dents decid­ed they did not like the way the roof drains looked, so they had them cov­ered with screens. In August 1999, when the city had 6.5 inch­es of rain in one day, the screens pre­vent­ed the water from drain­ing prop­er­ly. Water rose up over the para­pet walls and into the build­ing, drench­ing the under­ly­ing units from the ninth floor down to the sixth. The inte­ri­ors were so soaked that no work could be done until every­thing was dried out, which took some time. Restora­tion con­trac­tors then report­ed that all the elec­tric sys­tems in the build­ing had been destroyed, as was the beau­ti­ful plas­ter work­man­ship of this pre-war struc­ture. The apart­ments had to be gut­ted and rebuilt.

The sit­u­a­tion only got worse: it took a long time to get the claim set­tled and work under way, because the board of direc­tors right­ly insist­ed that plas­ter, rather than sheetrock, be used to restore the build­ing. The board was cor­rect in expect­ing insur­ance to pay for the plas­ter, as this was dic­tat­ed in the orig­i­nal build­ing plans. But it took eight months to restore the build­ing, dis­plac­ing those liv­ing in the affect­ed units.

For some, there was good news: the share­hold­ers on the eighth and ninth floors had unlim­it­ed loss of use cov­er­age. Their insur­ance pro­vid­ed hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars to house them in Man­hat­tan hotels. It also paid for them to eat out and for all the extra expens­es that result from not liv­ing at home. After six months, the insur­er decid­ed to reduce the ongo­ing expens­es and found these res­i­dents fur­nished two-bed­room apart­ments. But a hard les­son was learned by the res­i­dents on the sixth and sev­enth floors: their lim­it­ed loss of use cov­er­age ran out after about a month.

LIABILITY COVERAGE
Most home­own­ers insur­ance claims per­tain to res­i­dent-relat­ed inci­dents. For instance, if some­one slips and falls in your unit, you may be sub­ject to a lia­bil­i­ty law­suit. But lia­bil­i­ty doesn’t stop there. If your toi­let over­flows and dam­ages the down­stairs neighbor’s ori­en­tal rug, or if your cat scratch­es some­one in the eye – all these are poten­tial lia­bil­i­ty issues.

The answer is personal/family lia­bil­i­ty cov­er­age. Most stan­dard home­own­ers insur­ance poli­cies include $100,000 of lia­bil­i­ty cov­er­age, but unit own­ers should not have less than $500,000 in lia­bil­i­ty cov­er­age because, “you nev­er know whose Picas­so you’re going to ruin.”

THE RISKS OF NOT BEING INSURED
When share­hold­ers or unit own­ers do not have home­own­ers insur­ance, it is not only their prob­lem but it could cre­ate sig­nif­i­cant prob­lems for the build­ing, as well. If an apart­ment is ren­dered unin­hab­it­able for an extend­ed peri­od of time and the own­er has no cov­er­age to pay the expens­es of tem­po­rary liv­ing accom­mo­da­tions, the per­son­al cost could dri­ve the own­er into arrears and poten­tial­ly into default on the unit. The same could hap­pen if an inci­dent in an unin­sured shareholder’s unit affects anoth­er unit in the build­ing: the result­ing law­suit could force the share­hold­er into bank­rupt­cy.

This is why many coop­er­a­tives and con­do­mini­ums have made home­own­ers insur­ance manda­to­ry for every share­hold­er and unit own­er. If your board con­sid­ers estab­lish­ing such a pol­i­cy, it should spec­i­fy the min­i­mum amount of each form of cov­er­age that the unit own­ers must take. The amount depends on the build­ing; for exam­ple, $25,000 is a good start­ing point for per­son­al prop­er­ty cov­er­age in a mid­dle-class build­ing, but a more upscale build­ing may be expect­ed to have con­sid­er­ably high­er min­i­mums. Min­i­mum cov­er­age for improve­ments and alter­ations and for lia­bil­i­ty should also be estab­lished. You should eval­u­ate based on the val­ue of the most expen­sive unit in your build­ing, and work back­ward from that. An annu­al mon­i­tor­ing process should also be estab­lished to ensure that every­one is cov­ered.

Extract­ed from:

CNYC 250 West 57th Street, Suite 730 New York, NY 10107–0730 Tel: (212) 496‑7400 Fax: (212) 580‑7801

E‑mail: info@cnyc.coop

Read the orig­i­nal arti­cle here.

RECYCLING

We con­tin­ue to receive fines from NYC for hun­dreds of dol­lars for recy­cling. The cost of each fine con­tin­ues to rise with each vio­la­tion. It is imper­a­tive that we all pay close atten­tion to our recy­cling respon­si­bil­i­ties. Please take anoth­er look at the fly­ers that will be dis­trib­uted.

SECURITY

We are aware of the recent issues that have come up with the door buzzer and believe that the prob­lem has been fixed. We do take build­ing secu­ri­ty very seri­ous­ly, so if you notice any changes, please noti­fy the board ASAP.

ROOF/FLOORS

The roof is almost fin­ished! Upon its com­ple­tion, our grimy floors will be stripped, scrubbed and sealed- essen­tial­ly renewed to mint con­di­tion. There will be more nox­ious chem­i­cals that we have to con­tend with, so you will be informed well in advance so that you are able to make arrange­ments if need­ed.

RECYCLING

We con­tin­ue to receive fines from NYC for hun­dreds of dol­lars for recy­cling. The cost of each fine con­tin­ues to rise with each vio­la­tion. It is imper­a­tive that we all pay close atten­tion to our recy­cling respon­si­bil­i­ties. Please take anoth­er look at the fly­ers that will be dis­trib­uted.

SECURITY

We are aware of the recent issues that have come up with the door buzzer and believe that the prob­lem has been fixed. We do take build­ing secu­ri­ty very seri­ous­ly, so if you notice any changes, please noti­fy the board ASAP.

ROOF/FLOORS

The roof is almost fin­ished! Upon its com­ple­tion, our grimy floors will be stripped, scrubbed and sealed- essen­tial­ly renewed to mint con­di­tion. There will be more nox­ious chem­i­cals that we have to con­tend with, so you will be informed well in advance so that you are able to make arrange­ments if need­ed.

RECYCLING – OUR JOINT RESPONSIBILITY

All res­i­dents of 515 Edge­combe avenue coop­er­a­tion are required by law to recy­cle their waste in accor­dance with New York City Guide­lines. These guide­lines have been post­ed on the main notice board in the building’s Lob­by. Appro­pri­ate recy­cling bins are avail­able in the des­ig­nat­ed area on the build­ing premis­es. Every build­ing in New York City is required by law to recy­cle. The Sol­id Waste Man­age­ment Act of 1988 requires com­pre­hen­sive recy­cling in New York State. New York City ben­e­fits not only envi­ron­men­tal­ly, but also eco­nom­i­cal­ly from recy­cling. New York­ers must not lose the ben­e­fits of recy­cling by let­ting up on pru­dent waste man­age­ment prac­tices. Accord­ing to New York State Attor­ney Gen­er­al Elliot Spitzer, “Recy­cling is unques­tion­ably one of the most impor­tant efforts we make to con­serve nat­ur­al resources and reduce our depen­dence on land­fills and incin­er­a­tors – recy­cling makes enor­mous eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal sense and I am ful­ly com­mit­ted to expand­ing and enforc­ing recy­cling laws so that we can real­ize their full ben­e­fits.” The infor­ma­tion below pro­vides guide­lines on what and how to recy­cle: For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please vis­it the New York City web­site.

What to Recy­cle with San­i­ta­tion

The require­ments detailed below apply to all NYC res­i­dences, schools, insti­tu­tions, and agen­cies ser­viced by the Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion (DSNY) .

Watch ”How to Recy­cle in NYC“ ,
a help­ful and infor­ma­tive recy­cling video pro­duced by NYC Media and How­cast in con­sul­ta­tion with the Bureau of Waste Pre­ven­tion, Reuse and Recy­cling.

If your loca­tion is ser­viced by a pri­vate carter for garbage col­lec­tion, see the recy­cling require­ments for com­mer­cial busi­ness­es. If your site’s garbage is col­lect­ed by DSNY but you elect to use a pri­vate carter for your recy­clables, you must com­ply with cer­tain report­ing require­ments.

What to Recy­cle: Man­dat­ed Mate­ri­als
paper and card­board
bev­er­age car­tons, bot­tles, cans, met­al & foil
bulky items
fall leaves (for cer­tain dis­tricts)

Col­lec­tion, Con­tain­ers, and Pro­mo­tion­al Mate­ri­als
when to recy­cle and missed col­lec­tions
recy­cling con­tain­ers & decals
pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als

More Info
recy­cling sym­bol
also see

What and How to Recy­cle with San­i­ta­tion:
PAPER & CARDBOARD

• news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines, cat­a­logs

• white and col­ored paper (lined, copi­er, com­put­er, sta­ples OK)

• mail and envelopes (any col­or, win­dow envelopes OK)

• paper bags

• wrap­ping paper

• soft-cov­er books, tele­phone books (paper­backs, comics, etc.; no spi­ral bind­ings)

• card­board egg car­tons and trays

• smooth card­board (food and shoes box­es, tubes, file fold­ers, card­board from prod­uct pack­ag­ing)

• cor­ru­gat­ed card­board box­es (flat­tened and tied)

Place all paper recy­clables togeth­er in CLEAR bags, or in any bin labeled with GREEN recy­cling decals or marked “MIXED PAPER”. Or place in the white dump­ster for paper recy­cling, if your build­ing has one.)

Flat­ten and bun­dle large pieces of cor­ru­gat­ed card­board and tie with stur­dy twine, or break into small pieces to place in your recy­cling bin or bag. (Or place loose in the white dump­ster for paper recy­cling, if your build­ing has one.)

See how you can reduce your junk mail.

Don’t include the fol­low­ing with your paper recy­cling:

• hard­cov­er books
• nap­kins, paper tow­els, or tis­sues
• soiled paper cups or plates
• paper soiled with food or liq­uid
• paper with a lot of tape and glue
• plas­tic- or wax-coat­ed paper (can­dy wrap­pers, take-out con­tain­ers, etc.)
• pho­to­graph­ic paper

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What and How to Recy­cle with San­i­ta­tion:
BEVERAGE CARTONS, BOTTLES, CANS, METAL & FOIL

• plas­tic bot­tles & jugs only

• glass bot­tles & jars only

• met­al cans (soup, pet food, emp­ty aerosol cans, dried-out paint cans, etc.)

• alu­minum foil wrap & trays

• house­hold met­al (wire hang­ers, pots, tools, cur­tain rods, knives, small appli­ances that are most­ly met­al, etc.)

Emp­ty and rinse con­tain­ers before recy­cling. Place all togeth­er in CLEAR bags, or in any bin labeled with BLUE recy­cling decals or marked “BOTTLES & CANS”.

Remove caps & lids. Place METAL caps & lids in the recy­cling bin; put plas­tic caps & lids in the garbage.

Wrap knives or sim­i­lar sharp met­al objects in card­board (such as a piece of cere­al box) and secure with tape. Label the pack­age “CAUTION: SHARP” and place with oth­er des­ig­nat­ed met­al, glass, plas­tic recy­clables. For Home Sharps/Hypodermics, see House­hold Med­ical Wastes.

Place bulk met­al next to recy­cling bins or bags.

Call 311 before dis­card­ing appli­ances that con­tain CFC gas.

5¢ deposit: Bring deposit bot­tles and cans back to the store for refunds.

Don’t include the fol­low­ing with your bot­tle and can recy­cling:

• any glass items oth­er than glass bot­tles & jars (mir­rors, light­bulbs, ceram­ics, glass­ware, etc.)

• Sty­ro­foam (cups, egg car­tons, trays, etc.)

• bat­ter­ies

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What and How to Recy­cle:
BULKY ITEMS

Fur­ni­ture and appli­ances that are pre­dom­i­nant­ly met­al and are too big for your recy­cling con­tain­er or clear bag (such as wash­ing machines, met­al fil­ing cab­i­nets, box springs, or water heaters) should be placed beside the recy­cling con­tain­er on your reg­u­lar Recy­cling Day .

Before dis­card­ing appli­ances con­tain­ing CFC gas or fre­on (such as refrig­er­a­tors, freez­ers, air con­di­tion­ers, or dehu­mid­i­fiers), you must sched­ule an appoint­ment to place the item at the curb for CFC recov­ery. You can make an appoint­ment on the San­i­ta­tion web­site or call 311. For safe­ty rea­sons, the law requires doors to be removed from refrig­er­a­tors and freez­ers before plac­ing at the curb.

Non-recy­clable trash that is too big for your garbage con­tain­er or bag (such as mat­tress­es, lum­ber, or debris from small con­struc­tion or gar­den projects) may be placed at the curb on any reg­u­lar garbage col­lec­tion day .

The Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion will col­lect up to six bulk items from one address. For more infor­ma­tion, see bulk col­lec­tion on the DSNY web­site. There are spe­cial reg­u­la­tions for wood from trees and for mat­tress­es .

For info on how to han­dle TVs and oth­er bro­ken elec­tron­ics, see elec­tron­ics recy­cling.

For info on how to donate reusable fur­ni­ture and oth­er goods, vis­it NYC Stuff Exchange .

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When to Recy­cle and Missed Col­lec­tions

To find out your Recy­cling Day use the col­lec­tion sched­ule fea­ture on the San­i­ta­tion web­site,  or call 311.

To report missed col­lec­tions, call 311, or com­plete the Missed Col­lec­tion form on the San­i­ta­tion web­site.

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Recy­cling Con­tain­ers and Decals

The NYC Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion does not sup­ply bins or bags for recy­clables (or refuse). Rigid con­tain­ers can be used for recy­cling as long as they are 18–32 gal­lon capac­i­ty, have lids, and are prop­er­ly labeled. Plas­tic bags for recy­cling must be CLEAR, 13–55 gal­lon capac­i­ty. See where to buy recy­cling bins.

out­door con­tain­ers and decals
indoor con­tain­ers and decals

Out­door Con­tain­ers and Decals
(for setout at the curb for DSNY col­lec­tion)

To request free decals to label con­tain­ers, go to our pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als page or call the NYC Cit­i­zen Ser­vice Cen­ter at 311.

Label con­tain­ers on both sides and the lid with Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion decals, or per­ma­nent­ly marked in let­ters at least 4″ high:

RECYCLING: MIXED PAPER (green decal)

RECYCLING: BOTTLES, CANS & FOIL (blue decal)

Decal appli­ca­tion is most effec­tive when decal is applied dur­ing tem­per­a­tures between 40° and 50°F to a sur­face that is dry, clean, and smooth.

To request free decals to label con­tain­ers for Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion recy­cling col­lec­tion, see our pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als page or call the NYC Cit­i­zen Ser­vice Cen­ter at 311. Request new decals when fading/peeling occurs.

Indoor Con­tain­ers and Decals
(for inter­nal col­lec­tion of recy­clables)

Apart­ment build­ings, city agen­cies, schools, and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions receiv­ing DSNY col­lec­tion ser­vice can request sets of blue and green indoor decals to label indoor recy­cling con­tain­ers placed in com­mon areas.

These decals are for indoor use only, since they are too small and not durable enough for out­door use.

To request free decals to label indoor recy­cling con­tain­ers, see our pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als page or call the NYC Cit­i­zen Ser­vice Cen­ter at 311.

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Recy­cling Sym­bol

Many res­i­dents are con­fused about what to recy­cle because so many prod­ucts dis­play the uni­ver­sal recy­cling sym­bol (three chas­ing arrows), pri­mar­i­ly as a mar­ket­ing tool (see more infor­ma­tion on plas­tics resin codes).

But you don’t need to look for a recy­cling sym­bol or check the num­bers. Refer to the what to recy­cle lists above to decide what to put into recy­cling con­tain­ers.

Only items that have a viable resale mar­ket are accept­ed by New York City’s Recy­cling Pro­gram. Do not place items in your recy­cling con­tain­ers just because the pack­age dis­plays a recy­cling sym­bol or oth­er recy­cling infor­ma­tion. When in doubt, leave it out.

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ALSO SEE:
recy­cling at home
recy­cling in schools
recy­cling in agen­cies & insti­tu­tions
recy­cling in busi­ness­es

all about plas­tics
what hap­pens to recy­clables
his­to­ry of recy­cling in nyc
fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions
reports and stats
what’s in nyc’s waste
get rid of stuff
request forms
help­ful links
prod­ucts and ser­vices

IF THE FIRE IS IN YOUR APARTMENT

• Close the door to the room where the fire is and leave the apart­ment
• Make sure every­one leaves the apart­ment with you
• Take your keys
• Close, but do not lock, the apart­ment door
• Alert peo­ple on your floor by knock­ing on their doors on your way to the exit
• Call 911 once you reach a safe loca­tion. Do not assume the fire has been report­ed unless fire­fight­ers are on the scene
• Call the super­in­ten­dent at 347–791.7637
• Meet the mem­bers of your house­hold at a pre-deter­mined loca­tion out­side the build­ing. Noti­fy the fire­fight­ers if any­one is unac­count­ed for.
• Avoid pan­ic – stay­ing calm can be life-sav­ing

IF THE FIRE IS NOT IN YOUR APARTMENT

• Feel your apart­ment door and door­knob for heat. If they are not hot, open the door slight­ly and check the hall­way for smoke, heat or fire
• Exit the apart­ment and build­ing if you can safe­ly do so, fol­low­ing the instruc­tions above for a fire in your apart­ment
• If the hall­way or stair­well is not safe because of smoke, heat, or fire and you have access to a fire escape, use it to exit the build­ing. Pro­ceed cau­tious­ly on the fire escape and always car­ry or hold onto small chil­dren.
• If you can­not use the stairs or the fire escape, call 911 and tell them your address, floor, apart­ment num­ber and the num­ber of peo­ple in your apart­ment.
• Seal the doors to your apart­ment with wet tow­els or sheets, and seal air ducts or oth­er open­ings where smoke may enter.
• Open win­dows a few inch­es at top and bot­tom unless flames and smoke are com­ing from below.
• Do not break any win­dows.
• If con­di­tions in the apart­ment appear life-threat­en­ing, open a win­dow and wave a tow­el or sheet to attract the atten­tion of fire­fight­ers.
• If smoke con­di­tions wors­en before help arrives, get down on the floor and take short breaths through your nose. If pos­si­ble, retreat to a bal­cony or ter­race away from the source of the flames, heat or smoke.
• Avoid pan­ic – stay­ing calm can be life-sav­ing.
• For fur­ther fire pro­tec­tion, we rec­om­mend that you install a small, “dry chem­i­cal” type fire extin­guish­er in your kitchen. They are inex­pen­sive and can be very handy when you least expect it.

2007

2006

The elec­tions for the Board of Direc­tors 2006–2007 have been held…more

The share­hold­ers’ meet­ing was held on 11 MAY 2006. Copies of the 2005 Finan­cial State­ment for the Coop­er­a­tive can be obtained from the Man­ag­ing Agent or by writ­ing to the Board at 311@edgecombe.us

IF THE FIRE IS IN YOUR APARTMENT

• Close the door to

  the room where the fire is and leave the apart­ment

• Make sure every­one leaves the apart­ment with you
• Take your keys
• Close, but do not lock, the apart­ment door
• Alert peo­ple on your floor by knock­ing on their doors on your way to the exit
• Call 911 once you reach a safe loca­tion. Do not assume the fire has been report­ed unless fire­fight­ers are on the scene
• Call the super­in­ten­dent at (917) 731‑0891
• Meet the mem­bers of your house­hold at a pre-deter­mined loca­tion out­side the build­ing. Noti­fy the fire­fight­ers if any­one is unac­count­ed for.
• Avoid pan­ic — stay­ing calm can be life-sav­ing

IF THE FIRE IS NOT IN YOUR APARTMENT

• Feel your apart­ment door and door­knob for heat. If they are not hot, open the door slight­ly and check the hall­way for smoke, heat or fire
• Exit the apart­ment and build­ing if you can safe­ly do so, fol­low­ing the instruc­tions above for a fire in your apart­ment
• If the hall­way or stair­well is not safe because of smoke, heat, or fire and you have access to a fire escape, use it to exit the build­ing. Pro­ceed cau­tious­ly on the fire escape and always car­ry or hold onto small chil­dren.
• If you can­not use the stairs or the fire escape, call 911 and tell them your address, floor, apart­ment num­ber and the num­ber of peo­ple in your apart­ment.
• Seal the doors to your apart­ment with wet tow­els or sheets, and seal air ducts or oth­er open­ings where smoke may enter.
• Open win­dows a few inch­es at top and bot­tom unless flames and smoke are com­ing from below.
• Do not break any win­dows.
• If con­di­tions in the apart­ment appear life-threat­en­ing, open a win­dow and wave a tow­el or sheet to attract the atten­tion of fire­fight­ers.
• If smoke con­di­tions wors­en before help arrives, get down on the floor and take short breaths through your nose. If pos­si­ble, retreat to a bal­cony or ter­race away from the source of the flames, heat or smoke.
• Avoid pan­ic — stay­ing calm can be life-sav­ing.

For fur­ther fire pro­tec­tion, we rec­om­mend that you install a small, “dry chem­i­cal” type fire extin­guish­er in your kitchen. They are inex­pen­sive and can be very handy when you least expect it.

All res­i­dents of 515 Edge­combe avenue coop­er­a­tion are required by law to recy­cle their waste in accor­dance with New York City Guide­lines.

These guide­lines have been post­ed on the main notice board in the build­ing’s Lob­by. Appro­pri­ate recy­cling bins are avail­able in the des­ig­nat­ed area on the build­ing premis­es.

Every build­ing in New York City is required by law to recy­cle. The Sol­id Waste Man­age­ment Act of 1988 requires com­pre­hen­sive recy­cling in New York State. New York City ben­e­fits not only envi­ron­men­tal­ly, but also eco­nom­i­cal­ly from recy­cling. New York­ers must not lose the ben­e­fits of recy­cling by let­ting up on pru­dent waste man­age­ment prac­tices. Accord­ing to New York State Attor­ney Gen­er­al Elliot Spitzer, “Recy­cling is unques­tion­ably one of the most impor­tant efforts we make to con­serve nat­ur­al resources and reduce our depen­dence on land­fills and incin­er­a­tors — recy­cling makes enor­mous eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal sense and I am ful­ly com­mit­ted to expand­ing and enforc­ing recy­cling laws so that we can real­ize their full ben­e­fits.”

The infor­ma­tion below pro­vides guide­lines on what and how to recy­cle: For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please vis­it the New York City web­site.

What and How to Recy­cle:
PAPER & CARDBOARD

YES — PLACE IN RECYCLING		NO — PLACE IN TRASH
white, col­ored, and glossy paper (sta­ples OK; no spi­ral bind­ings) mail and envelopes wrap­ping paper (remove rib­bon and tape) smooth card­board (food box­es — remove inside & out­side plas­tic wrap­pers — shoe box­es, tubes from paper tow­el and toi­let paper rolls, card­board from prod­uct pack­ag­ing) paper bags paper/cardboard egg car­tons and trays news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines, and cat­a­logs phone books, soft cov­er books (paper­backs, com­ic books, etc.) cor­ru­gat­ed card­board (flat­tened box­es)		hard­cov­er books nap­kins, paper tow­els, or tis­sues soiled paper cups or plates paper heav­i­ly soiled with food or liq­uid paper with a lot of tape and glue plas­tic- or wax-coat­ed paper (can­dy wrap­pers, take-out con­tain­ers, etc.)

Place mixed paper mate­ri­als togeth­er in a labeled bin (prefer­ably green), clear bag, or labeled dump­ster. Flat­ten and bun­dle large pieces of cor­ru­gat­ed card­board and tie with stur­dy twine, or place loose in your dump­ster.

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What and How to Recy­cle:
BEVERAGE CARTONS, BOTTLES, CANS, METAL & FOIL

YES — PLACE IN RECYCLING		NO — PLACE IN TRASH
met­al cans (such as tuna, emp­ty aerosol cans, emp­ty and dried-out paint cans with lids removed) alu­minum foil wrap & trays house­hold met­al (such as wire hang­ers, pots, and pans) bulk met­al (such as met­al fur­ni­ture, cab­i­nets, and appli­ances) glass bot­tles & jars plas­tic bot­tles & jugs bev­er­age car­tons & drink box­es (milk & juice)		any glass items oth­er than glass bot­tles & jars (such as mir­rors, light bulbs, ceram­ics, and glass­ware) any plas­tic items oth­er than plas­tic bot­tles & jugs (such as deli and yogurt con­tain­ers; plas­tic toys, cups, bags, and wrap) sty­ro­foam (cups, egg car­tons, trays, etc.) bat­ter­ies

Emp­ty and rinse con­tain­ers before recy­cling. Place togeth­er in CLEAR bags or blue labeled bin.

Place bulk met­al next to recy­cling bins or bags.

Call 311 before dis­card­ing appli­ances that con­tain CFC gas.

5¢ deposit: Bring deposit bot­tles and cans back to the store for refunds.

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What and How to Recy­cle:
BULKY TRASH

YES — PLACE WITH  RECYCLING		NO — PLACE WITH TRASH
Fur­ni­ture and appli­ances that are pre­dom­i­nant­ly met­al* and are too big for your recy­cling con­tain­er or clear bag — such as wash­ing machines, met­al fil­ing cab­i­nets, box springs, or water heaters — should be placed beside the con­tain­er on your reg­u­lar Recy­cling Day.		Non-recy­clable trash that is too big for your con­tain­er or bag — such as mat­tress­es, lum­ber, TVs, or debris from small con­struc­tion or gar­den projects — should be placed at the curb on your reg­u­lar garbage col­lec­tion day (except dur­ing weeks with hol­i­days or snow days). The Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion will col­lect up to six bulk items from one address. For more infor­ma­tion, see bulk col­lec­tion on the DSNY web­site.

*Appli­ances with CFC Gas

Before dis­card­ing appli­ances con­tain­ing CFC gas, or fre­on — such as refrig­er­a­tors, freez­ers, air con­di­tion­ers, or dehu­mid­i­fiers — you must sched­ule an appoint­ment to place the item at the curb for CFC recov­ery. You can make an appoint­ment on the San­i­ta­tion web­site or call 311. For safe­ty rea­sons, the law requires doors to be removed from refrig­er­a­tors and freez­ers before plac­ing at the curb.

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Missed Col­lec­tions

To report missed col­lec­tions, call 311, or com­plete the Missed Col­lec­tion form on the San­i­ta­tion web­site.

Mul­ti-Unit and Apart­ment Build­ings

Res­i­den­tial build­ing owners/landlords must noti­fy ten­ants about recy­cling require­ments, des­ig­nate an acces­si­ble recy­cling area, and main­tain signs explain­ing what and how to recy­cle. The Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion rec­om­mends that land­lords pro­vide new ten­ants with recy­cling infor­ma­tion with their lease, and remind ten­ants about their recy­cling respon­si­bil­i­ties with lease renewals.

All ten­ants are required to keep recy­clables sep­a­rate from reg­u­lar garbage and recy­cle accord­ing to their build­ing man­age­ment instruc­tions in prop­er­ly col­ored and labeled recep­ta­cles.

To report recy­cling vio­la­tions, call 311 or vis­it the appro­pri­ate pages on the San­i­ta­tion web­site: apart­ment owner/manager recy­cling vio­la­tions or apart­ment ten­ant recy­cling vio­la­tions.

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Recy­cling Vio­la­tions

Recy­cling vio­la­tions car­ry fines of $25 (first Notice), $50 (sec­ond Notice), $100 (third Notice), and $500 (four or more Notices with­in a six-month peri­od).

Build­ings with ten or more apart­ments that receive four or more Notices of Vio­la­tion with­in a six-month peri­od will be fined $500 for each bag that vio­lates recy­cling reg­u­la­tions, up to a max­i­mum of 20 bags with­in a 24-hour peri­od. This trans­lates to a max­i­mum fine of $10,000 per day.

APARTMENT BUILDINGS: Owners/Landlords
APARTMENT BUILDINGS: Ten­ants
What to do if you get a tick­et

APARTMENT BUILDINGS (3 or more units): Owners/Landlords

The fol­low­ing infrac­tions could result in a Notice of Vio­la­tion being issued against build­ing owners/landlords of mul­ti-unit build­ings:

• Fail­ure to post signs with spe­cif­ic recy­cling instruc­tions for the build­ing.
• Fail­ure to have and main­tain a ten­ant-acces­si­ble Recy­cling Area.
• Fail­ure to remove garbage and non-recy­clables from des­ig­nat­ed recy­cling con­tain­ers.
• Fail­ure to flat­ten and tie cor­ru­gat­ed card­board box­es (unless bro­ken down into small pieces and placed in a bag, con­tain­er, or dump­ster).
• Fail­ure to tie news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines, cat­a­logs, and phone books into bun­dles no more than eigh­teen (18″) inch­es high (if not placed in a bag or con­tain­er).
• Plac­ing mixed paper, news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines, cat­a­logs, and phone books in any bag oth­er than a 13–55 gal­lon clear plas­tic bag.
• Plac­ing bev­er­age car­tons, bot­tles, cans, or foil in reg­u­lar garbage.
• Using recy­cling con­tain­ers or blue recy­cling bags for reg­u­lar garbage.
• Using an improp­er recy­cling con­tain­er or fail­ing to pro­vide appro­pri­ate con­tain­ers.

• Plac­ing sep­a­rat­ed recy­clables out for col­lec­tion in reg­u­lar garbage con­tain­er

  s.

APARTMENT BUILDINGS (3 or more units): Ten­ants

The fol­low­ing infrac­tions could result in a Notice of Vio­la­tion for ten­ants of mul­ti-unit build­ings:

• Fail­ure to sep­a­rate recy­clables from reg­u­lar

  garbage and place them in the prop­er con­tain­ers pro­vid­ed by build­ing man­age­ment.

• Plac­ing reg­u­lar garbage in des­ig­nat­ed recy­cling con­tain­ers.

• Fail­ure to rinse bev­er­age car­tons, bot­tles, cans, and foil c

  lean of food and residue.

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Bat­ter­ies, Auto Flu­ids, and Oth­er Spe­cial Waste

The NYC Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion oper­ates Self Help Spe­cial Waste Drop-Off Sites in every bor­ough for the col­lec­tion and recy­cling of auto­mo­tive flu­ids, bat­ter­ies, flu­o­res­cent bulbs, mer­cury-filled ther­mostats and ther­mome­ters, paint, and tires.

Do not place these mate­ri­als in your recy­cling bin. Use the links below for waste pre­ven­tion tips and how to prop­er­ly dis­pose of these items:

bat­ter­ies: auto­mo­tive

bat­ter­ies: house­hold
flu­o­res­cent bulbs
motor oil
paint
tires

ALSO SEE reduc­ing tox­i­cs at home and recy­clers and ven­dors for less tox­ic alter­na­tives.

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Com­put­ers, Ton­er Car­tridges, and Oth­er Mate­ri­als

ALSO SEE elec­tron­ics recy­cling.

For items not list­ed here, try the “How do I dis­pose of…” fea­ture on the San­i­ta­tion web­site.

Go to recy­clers and ven­dors to find recy­clers for bulk quan­ti­ties of items NOT col­lect­ed for recy­cling by the NY Depart­ment of San­i­ta­tion, includ­ing ton­er car­tridges, cell phones, com­put­ers, and CDs.

Vis­it new homes for old stuff to find places to donate, sell, or buy sec­ond-hand goods.

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Recy­cling Sym­bol

Many res­i­dents are con­fused about what to recy­cle because so many prod­ucts dis­play the uni­ver­sal recy­cling sym­bol. How­ev­er, only items that have a viable resale mar­ket are accept­ed by New York City’s Recy­cling Pro­gram. While many oth­er items car­ry the recy­cling sym­bol and are in the­o­ry recy­clable, they do not nec­es­sar­i­ly have exten­sive resale mar­kets.

The only plas­tics accept­ed for recy­cling in New York City are bot­tles & jugs (with necks small­er than their bod­ies) that are stamped on the bot­tom with 1 & 2 codes. All oth­er plas­tic con­tain­ers and all oth­er plas­tic items should be placed in the reg­u­lar trash — even if they are labeled PETE or HDPE.

Refer to the lists above to decide what to put into recy­cling con­tain­ers. Do not place items in your recy­cling con­tain­ers just because the pack­age con­tains a recy­cling sym­bol or oth­er recy­cling infor­ma­tion. When in doubt, leave it out.

For more infor­ma­tion, see Can I recy­cle oth­er plas­tics besides #1 & #2 bot­tles & jugs? in FAQs.

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Help­ful Hints

• Keep con­tain­ers for col­lect­ing mixed paper in your main work areas, such as where you sort your mail and dis­card kitchen items. Devise your own sys­tem to make it easy for you.
• If you are con­cerned about the con­fi­den­tial­i­ty of your mail, remove address labels and tear up mail.
• After shop­ping, remove and recy­cle paper pack­ag­ing.
• Leave labels on cans and jars. Dis­card non­metal caps and lids; recy­cle all met­al.
• Avoid pests and odors by rins­ing recy­clables before stor­ing them.
• Save space by flat­ten­ing bev­er­age car­tons and plas­tic bot­tles (it won’t affect recy­cla­bil­i­ty).
• Recy­cle alu­minum foil used for wrap­ping, not cook­ing (unless food and grease wash­es off eas­i­ly).

For addi­tion­al links on recy­cling, go to recy­cling resources