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Health & Fitness

Coop Living at Horizon House - Part 1

Living in a coop can be a wonderful thing.  It can have great social benefits.  You have in-house maintenance, pool membership for an unreasonably excessive fee, and tennis courts that are rarely used by the residents because:


 (a) the fees are too high;

 (b) there are many seniors who no longer consider tennis a viable pastime;  

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(c) in order to play you have to pick up keys at the security office, since the project for card keys was never completed;

(d) the tennis courts and the fencing around the courts are not maintained well enough to be safe and secure for residents,

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 or

(e) all of the above.  

 

Horizon House is one of the older coops in Fort Lee with six buildings, a management company, but no manager. Instead, we have management by committee. There is a maintenance supervisor, whose performance I personally find very questionable, and a Board of Trustees that are elected by the residents.   The Board is composed of resident/candidates that consistently run on platforms that promise that things will get better in the complex, but that just never seems to happen. 

In late May, our Horizon doorman was handing out flyers to residents regarding the tennis courts. There are only two tennis courts for the entire complex of six buildings.   The flyers indicated that the tennis courts would be closed in June for resurfacing (estimated time – 3 weeks) and fence repair.    Now I’m not certain what planet the Board Members are from, but on the planet Earth, the first three weeks of June are three of the prime weeks of the tennis season.  Upon trying to call the coop Tennis chairman, Martin Chernov, I was told by his doorman that he would be on vacation until May 30.   Perhaps coincidence, perhaps convenience, the tennis chairman happens to be on vacation when these flyers are distributed.  It certainly avoids the obvious problem of tenants questioning the wisdom or necessity for the decision to close the courts. 

Note: an explanation was offered that the resurfacing could not be completed in March and April due to the temperature.  However, having investigated the veracity of this argument, I have concluded that the resurfacing could have been done in April or early May with no problem.

There is currently a new flyer on the bulletin Board that says “Tennis signup available”. It is dated June 21st.  Of course, most tennis players understand that the best months to play tennis are late April, May, early June, and in the fall, September and October.  The reason is that the temperatures are more moderate.  Playing tennis in 90+ degree weather in late June, July, and August is conducive to dehydration; sun poisoning; even possible strokes. 

Like I stated earlier, it is wonderful to live in a coop community where everything runs smoothly and the elected Board members are right on top of their game.  As long as the game is not TENNIS!. 

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