Maintaining An Excellent Quality Of Life
at North Shore Towers and Country Club
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I NOVEMBER 2019 45
In addition to the luxury living, many amenities,
first-rate security and year-round fun activities that
North Shore Towers and Country Club offers its
residents and members, one more major advantage
that it offers is a first-rate maintenance staff that
helps make sure everything is working just right
24 hours a day, seven days a week at this enormous
private, gated community.
What helps make that possible is the maintenance
staff supervisor, Steve Cairo, who serves as North
Shore Towers and Country Club’s General
Superintendent. He’s been working there for more
than 17 years in the same role, he told the Long
Island Press.
Cairo joined the North Shore Towers and
Country Club staff in March 2002. As is the case
with several key people there, it’s been a second
career for him. Cairo, like several of his co-workers,
served in the New York City Police Department.
He retired from the NYPD after 22 years, the
last seven of them as Lieutenant and Operations
Coordinator of the 105th Precinct in Queens
Village, the precinct which serves North Shore
Towers, he noted.
For Cairo, a lot of the skills he acquired as a
supervisor with the NYPD came in handy with
his second career, he noted, adding there were
many similarities between what he does now and
what he did as a supervisor at the NYPD, including
scheduling and training.
Asked what he liked most about his job at North
Shore Towers, he replied: “It’s a different challenge
every day. It’s a big place. There’s a lot going on. I’m
always looking for ways to improve efficiency and
make the place better. I continue to strive to do a
better job every day.”
Among the many other reasons why Cairo says
he’s enjoyed working at North Shore Towers and
Country Club is its “great staff,” he said, noting
he supervises about 75 employees, including the
handyman, the concierges, the doormen and
three superintendents, one for each of the three
buildings; each of them has 22 employees in their
assigned building. Those three superintendents
“set a good example” and make sure there’s “not
a speck of dust or dirt on the carpets” of those
99 floors, which he says they check every day and
vacuum as needed.
The building superintendents are “really the
backbone of North Shore Towers,” he said,
adding: “They are very dedicated. They live on the
property” and they are around to respond to any
emergencies that may arise because there’s always
staff on duty, regardless of what time it is.
And it’s a massive property that they have to
respond within. He pointed out that it includes
110 acres, 1844 apartments, 33 floors in each of
the three buildings and “a lot of common areas
that we have to maintain.”
One of the things he said he’s most proud
of is “the great job that the staff does each day,
maintaining the buildings, keeping them clean,
keeping them well maintained – providing a
professional service to all our residents on a daily
basis.” The staff is “wonderful” and what makes him
especially proud is the fact that of the 75 people
on his staff, “I’ve hired about 60 of them,” he said.
About 15 of them have been working there even
longer than he has, for more than 20 years, he
pointed out.
“Whether it’s the lobby staff helping out with the
residents and their packages or assisting unloading
their cars, the handymen addressing concerns in
residents’ apartments – leaky faucets, snaking
drains, et cetera – that is what they do on a daily
basis,” he said.
Selecting the right people to hire for the North
Shore Towers staff is no easy task either. When
interviewing people to work there, “I always tell
them: You have to be special to work at North
Shore Towers. You have to know how to smile. You
have to know how to deal with people. You have to
be a good person and care about people. We have a
diverse population living here who must be treated
with patience and respect. You have to know how
to talk to people. You have to be mature. You have
to act professional.”
And he tends to pick the right people. “The staff
is amazing,” he said, adding: “I’m confident our
staff could handle any situation that may arise here.
And we have.”
What feels especially great is when people
outside North Shore Towers visit and complement
their work. For example, he pointed to building
inspectors who have called the place “immaculate”
in comparison to the many buildings they visit.
“Our maintenance department is a vital
component to the exceptional quality of life we
enjoy here,” according to Linda Rappaport, On-Site
Real Estate Broker at North Shore Towers.
Of course, in addition to its first-rate
maintenance, engineering and security staff,
North Shore Towers and Country Club offers an
18-hole golf course, five Har-Tru tennis courts,
indoor and outdoor pools, a sauna, steam rooms,
a hot tub, a state-of-the-art gym offering classes
including Pilates, and many other activities.
The Club offers classes that include boxing and
Pilates Reformer, a special exercise machine that’s
“good for stretching your body,” says Mary Anne
Langone, Country Club Manager. “A lot of our
golfers take the Reformer class because it helps
with their flexibility,” she adds.
Pool activities include outdoor water classes,
volleyball and several outdoor pool parties. There
are basketball courts, boxing and billiards rooms,
ping-pong and shuffleboard also. In addition,
there’s shopping, a movie theater, barbecues, a
garden club and many entertainment events.
For more Country Club details and to book a tour,
call Mary Anne Langone at 718-428-5030 ext. 0.
From left to right: Steve Cairo, General Superintendent; Pablo Portillo, Central Maintenance/Assistant
to the General Superintendent; Manny Bernacet, Building Three Superintendent; Robert Isaac, Building
One Superintendent; and Melbis Peguero, Building Two Superintendent
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