Sad News: Ada Marie Wattley

The Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association mourns the loss of our neighbor

ADA  MARIE  WATTLEY 

who died on January 18, 2019 after a long illness.

We extend our condolences to her husband Alfred and the rest of their family.  

The funeral service will be on 

Wednesday, January 23, 2019 

at noon at the Unity Funeral Home

2352 Eighth Avenue. 

We have a new email address!

Pixabay.com

Our tenant association has a new email address:

CPG Ten Assoc [at sign] gmail  [dot] com

[don't type the spaces or the stuff in brackets]

Every member of the association's executive committee can see it and respond to your questions.  Please add it to your address book!

Got mice?

Publicdomainpictures.net

MICE seem to be coming out of the brickwork. 

WHAT DO MICE LIKE?
Crumbs and food garbage. You can compost, keeping food garbage in the freezer till the Friday Farmer’s Market or until we get composting in the building. It makes for less free-flowing food garbage in the compactor room.
Clutter – all that stuff we accumulate over time, like papers, old plastic containers, too many bags, and bits of cloth.
Leaky faucets, bowls of water for pets, condensation
Small openings, like around: the gas pipe leading to your stove the pipes leading to your sinks and toilet, the pipes leading into and away from your radiators, and the small wall openings for telephone wires.
Cheese and peanut butter
Peace and quiet.  So when drilling vibrations hit the walls, they come out.
Cat-free homes

WHAT KEEPS MICE AWAY

Seal your food up: Metal or heavy-plastic sealed containers with tight lids, or keeping food in the fridge.  Putting an open box of crackers in a thin plastic bag may not be enough.

Clear up  clutter,  leaving the mice nothing to build a nest with or to hide in.

Dry areas Get your leaks repaired.

Sign up for the exterminator at the guard’s desk.  Ask him to seal all the openings.  If he doesn’t do it, stuff fine steel wool (not with soap in it) or knitted copper wire mesh around the pipes and other openings.

Once the openings are sealed, trap the mice that may already be inside your apartment.   (Don’t use poison: you’ll end up with smelly dead mice in the walls.)

If you see droppings or trap a mouse:  Don’t sweep or vacuum until the area is wet with a bleach mixture.  (You could end up with dust containing viruses in the air.)  With rubber gloves, mix detergent plus 1.5 cups of bleach in a gallon of water. Spray dead rodents, traps, droppings, and the areas where you found them. Put the sprayed dead rodent or droppings in a plastic bag and seal it. Then put that in another plastic bag, seal it, and put down the chute.  Or call one of the building staff.

CAUTION: The landlord can evict a tenant for not clearing up a nuisance like clutter. If you think you, like many of your neighbors,  might have a problem, contact the tenant association’s executive committee for help. 

Sad News: Jacob Brockington

The Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association 

mourns the loss of our good friend 

Jacob Brockington.

Photo provided by
 Jodi Brockington

Brock was active in the tenant association from its very beginning 

and helped put together our early newsletter, the Garden Scoop.

He died on Christmas day, 2018.

We extend our condolences to his daughters Lindsay and Jodi 

and to the rest of his family.

Happy Holidays!

FROM OUR TENANT ASSOCIATION 

TO

ALL THE TENANTS IN THE BUILDING

by Melissa Brawner

HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR!

Succession: what you need, and the process.

The room was packed as Jodi Brockington and Sue Susman presented Succession Rights 101 for tenants in rent stabilized apartments.   Here's a summary: 

SUCCESSION BASICS

Taking over the rent stabilized lease in your own name.* 

IN ADVANCE, 

MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOUR FAMILY MEMBER(s) TO TAKE OVER THE LEASE IF YOU LEAVE:

The tenant named on the lease should list those living in the apartment too on every lease renewal. (SCRIE and DRIE tenants:  those people are part of your household and their income counts toward the $50,000 annual limit.)

The tenant named on the lease should fill out DHCR Form 23.5 and send it to Stellar by certified mail, return receipt requested.  (If you have already done this, you don't have to do it again unless your household composition changes.) Staple the return receipt form, once it comes back, to the copy you have kept of the Form.  Give it to the family member(s) living with you who may want to take over ("succeed to") the lease if you are no longer living in the apartment. 

Keep a big box or envelope in which you place copies of all documents you might need in the future to prove succession rights - such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, driver's license, tax returns, jury summons, etc.