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CP022016

C R Y D E R P O I N T 8 FEBRUARY Big Blizzard Can’t Beat the Cryder Point Crew! By Jill Davis It was still dark out and the storm was at full throttle when I heard an engine running outside my apartment. What the heck? I peeked out my window and saw a tiny tractor (aka the “Bobcat”) in front of the 41 Building. The driver was moving forward, shoveling up snow, spinning around and dumping it, over and over again. I didn’t know which one of our guys was in that contraption, but I couldn’t imagine how anybody could maneuver that little thing in such crazy wind and severe snowfall. It made me a little nervous. The storm ended with a near-record 26.8 inches of snow in Central Park. Here at Cryder Point, it’s estimated that we received 30” by the time it was over, and we all pretty much hibernated. All of us, that is, except for Bill Newell, our Resident Manager, and several outstanding members of the Cryder Point staff who continued to clear the property throughout Sunday. I confess that I really didn’t think about the dig-out until Monday morning when I started receiving emails from a few other co-op board members in Queens. Their properties were still in a hot mess of deep snow, and they were receiving angry emails from their residents. In sharp contrast, I ventured out and saw a shoveled driveway and walkable paths, and when I drove out to the street our sidewalks on Powells Cove looked downright pristine. Now I was curious. What did our staff do that others couldn’t? How does such a major clean-up work successfully? So after things were back to normal I asked Bill if we could have a chat, and I learned that there’s more to it than you’d think. The first thing he wanted to talk about was the crew. Sergio Cruz and Jose Fernandez each worked a double shift. Ian Hinds and Arnold Guzman both pulled triples. I knew it was a bad storm, but 16 and 24 hour shifts? “Actually more than that,” Bill said. “Arnold showed up at six in the morning to get prepared, and Ian took a short nap and then went back to work.” “Remember,” Bill continued, “some guys just couldn’t get in, and overnight security couldn’t get here at all on Saturday night. He paused, then said emphatically, “If you don’t have your ‘bulls’--your key employees then you have a big problem. But they were here.” Bill went on to explain the importance of preparation. “Are the machines working? Do they have enough fuel? Are there enough shovels? All of that was checked beforehand.” And details you probably wouldn’t think of. “Do the men have gloves? We ordered gloves for the guys two months ago,” Bill said. Then he added, “Is there enough salt?” Now that’s a big item. Did you 8 cryder point courier | FEBRUARY 2016 | WWW.QNS.COM know that a typical bad storm might use 10 to 12 bags of salt, each weighing 80 pounds? This one required 120 bags. That’s 9,600 pounds of salt! Bill had ordered ahead. “You also need to make sure you have a snow emergency action plan,” Bill advised. “What if I’m not here? The crew needs to know what to do.” So, what do they do? Well, did you know that in a storm like this, it takes up to three hours to clear one end of the grounds to the other? Bill said, “You have to do it progressively. You finish one round then start over and keep repeating the process. You can’t let the snow build up or you’d be buried. The staff knows this.” It should be noted that Bill wasn’t just supervising; he was out there with the rest of the guys throughout the ordeal. “Yeah,” he laughed, “and I got stuck about 20 times.” He went on, “I got totally stuck in Can you dig it? the temporary parking lot, and it had to get cleaned out. Our equipment just couldn’t do it. I have to thank Greg Maher for helping us out.” Greg has been a Cryder Point resident for the past few months and happens to have a plow on his truck, and he plowed out the lot. Thank you Greg! Bill and I were about to wrap up when he stopped me. “I also have to thank the residents who fed the staff,” he said. I had heard that some folks had given food to the crew. “Yeah,” Bill said, “usually we’d have pizza delivered, but that wasn’t going to happen! People brought food down to the men. It really meant a lot.” So in the end, this is about planning and preparing--and also about teamwork and community. Thanks to Bill and our great staff for their formidable work, and to all of the residents who took care of them while they took care of us.


CP022016
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