Q&A
Elevator monitoring and pest control progress
1:53:24
·
3 min
Council Member Banks asks about the progress of installing remote monitoring systems for elevators and the construction of rat slabs for pest control. NYCHA officials provide updates on both initiatives.
Key points:
- 73% of NYCHA elevators now have remote monitoring systems, exceeding the agreement requirement of 70%
- 37 out of 50 required rat slabs have been completed to date
- NYCHA is working on establishing a pest infestation index to measure reductions in pest populations, but it is a complex data project
Chris Banks
1:53:24
Alright.
1:53:25
Thank you.
1:53:26
How many remote monitoring systems have been installed?
Brad Greenburg
1:53:30
I guess, from the elevators or heat.
Chris Banks
1:53:32
Oh, from elevators?
Brad Greenburg
1:53:33
Elevators.
1:53:34
So we've the agreement requirements to do 70% of our elevators having remote monitoring.
1:53:38
We're at 73% and Keith can talk to you about how those systems operate.
1:53:44
We also every time we're modernizing a new elevator, we are installing a remote monitoring system, but we we have met that requirement.
Chris Banks
1:53:53
According to the agreement, one of the obligations related to pests and waste management is the constructing of 50 rat slabs by December 2020.
1:54:05
Could you Oh, sorry.
1:54:08
By December 2020, could you share the progress of this obligation and how many rat slabs have been constructed to to today?
Brad Greenburg
1:54:16
I think Dylan will come up here from our capital program.
1:54:19
While he's coming up here, I'll tell you that RASLabs are not such a simple project as they sound.
1:54:24
Sometimes they're in confined spaces.
1:54:26
We also couldn't do that work during the COVID pandemic, but Dylan, if you wanna give an update on how many we got towards the fifties before you start.
1:54:33
Could you raise your right hand?
1:54:35
Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in your testimony before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions?
Matt Cipolla
1:54:42
Yes.
1:54:42
I do.
1:54:44
So council member, to date, we've completed 37 out of the 50 rat slabs.
Chris Banks
1:54:53
Does Nitrogen believe they have met the requirement?
1:54:57
Well, obviously, you haven't met the requirement, no to 50%.
Matt Cipolla
1:55:02
No.
1:55:02
Okay.
1:55:03
Yeah.
1:55:03
As you said, you have we have not.
Chris Banks
1:55:05
So does Nitro believe that they have met the requirement of a 50% reduction in rat population, 40% reduction in mice and cockroach reduction in the in in bed bugs?
Brad Greenburg
1:55:16
That's separate from the rat's lab.
1:55:17
So that there's an obligation in the agreement to set a nitrile pest infestation index, which I think is what you're referring to.
1:55:25
We we the monitors, the last monitor, and this monitor are supposed to be who initiates that infestation index.
1:55:32
We have been doing yearly inspections since the beginning of the agreement to set a baseline.
1:55:37
And then we have to kind of figure out from a data standpoint.
1:55:40
We've had really talented data scientists and Urban Vitamologists working on this.
1:55:44
From the monitor team for the last 5 years.
1:55:46
I think we are still talking with them about that baseline and what it will look like and also what it will look like to measure the populations in future years.
1:55:54
But it is a exceedingly complicated data project.
1:56:00
That's why when I showed you earlier, we are encouraged and hope that it will come to show that in the population index too.
1:56:08
We're encouraged by the fact that we do see fewer complaints from residents about the public health pest types.
1:56:14
Complaints are not a perfect way to see a population because you might have residents who are not complaining about, you know, passing their apartment, and that might be the index unit, for example.
1:56:24
But we're encouraged by the downward trend in the number of complaints kind of being indicative of a reduction in the population in nature properties.
