UPDATE NOV 3 FROM WARC PRESIDENT: ELECTRIC POWER RESTORED AT WESTBETH. INFO ON VOTING IN COMMUNITY ROOM, MORE INFO ON HEAT AND WATER

Hopefully there will not be a need for too many more of these…

My reports come from The Corporate Westbeth Page on FB, our elected officials, Lisa Rifkin and from Deb Travis who I can’t thank enough for keeping me updated and handling all the requests I have sent to her and then taking on another dozen tasks as well.

Good News – Electrical Power was restored at 4:30AM. Water service has not been restored yet.

I just tried to call the land line in my apartment but that service is not restored either.

From the Westbeth Corporate FB Page:
We have no news on the heating front. Our boiler contractor should have its personnel at Westbeth soon to begin the process of determining how much damage was sustained and what will be entailed in making the system operable again. It is most likely, however, that we are looking at a number of weeks before heat will be available.

Tenants and staff have detected the odorous consequences of Sandy. The smell is the result of the mixing of sea water, mud, debris, and all the various materials the basement held: Artists’ working materials; the contents of Westbeth’s maintenance shops, such as paints, solvents, petroleum products, and detergents; whatever else got loose from tenants’ rented spaces and the sculpture studio; the contents of the laundry room; and all the miscellaneous stuff a basement contains. Fortunately, we have not detected any sewer gas, which can be dangerous both to breath and because it is combustible. If you can smell the basement odor in your apartment, it is probably best to have a window and allow fresh air to enter your space. The basement under the best of circumstances is hard to ventilate in the best of times, and, as a consequence, some part of that smell is likely to linger for many weeks.

Reports that Deb has gathered:

Rent: since no rent stubs have been distributed and Phipps cannot handle receiving the checks, Matthew asks that we wait until next week to pay the rent.

Community Room: we are not reserving the Community Room until further notice. It is open from 10am to 8pm to charge devices. (Which might be irrelevant now)

Basement: no tenants are allowed in the basement. Once the electricity and basic services are restored, management will coordinate with affected residents for the inspection and removal of property.

Dumpster: if you have garbage that needs to be disposed of, please bring it to the dumpster in the inner courtyard garage area.

Food: please contact Olivia if you know anyone who is unable to leave their apartment for food. Meals on wheels is providing service in our area.

State of the basement: a few inches of water remain to be pumped. They will be using immersion pumps to get to some of the more difficult areas.

The Council has labeled the doors of tenants we know have left in order to prevent worry. Please label your door if you leave and please label the door of anyone you know to have left.

From Lisa Rifkin:

Lisa called the Board of Elections and got this information.

Right now it is still expected that the Westbeth Community Room will be the polling place on Tuesday, November 6th.

For those of you who have relocated and are not sure you will be able to get back on Nov 6th, you can go and cast an absentee ballot. Everything is very fluid there so we think you should call the BOE before you go there to be sure they are sticking with these dates and times.

Board of Elections
Operations temporarily relocated to:
450 West 33rd Street, 10Flr
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 1. 212.465.0503
Fax: 1. 212.465.2135

This might change when power is back. We don’t know if their service has been restored. As of yesterday, these were the times they were saying they would be open. I would reconfirm that before going. There is a possibility the location and times have changed.

Saturday, Nov 3rd 9AM to 6PM
Sunday, Nov 4th 9AM to 6PM
Monday Nov 5th 9AM to 5 PM

There have been many requests about our senior tenants and food and water. Olivia Duerr has coordinated food deliveries to all who are in need. Yesterday, both Congressman Nadler and Speaker Quinn’s offices delivered water and non-perishable food to the front desk. Some of those supplies are still down at the desk if anyone is in need.

Off to start the GOTV drive here in Ohio.

More tomorrow, when I hope everything is restored and these updates are not needed.

Love from Ohio,

George Cominskie