In Southtown, a prefab condo sales office has been erected east of the new Main Street. According to David Kramer of Hudson, Inc., there will be 230 apartments in Southtown building 3, on which construction has started. Cornell is buying 88 - four floors in the lower half of the building, and the remainder of 142, consisting of studios through three-bedroom units, will be up for sale, with pricing available in about a month. Occupancy is late 2005, says Kramer.

The Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy project, RITE, has been stalled by State and Federal Fish and Wildlife regulators, who are calling for a year-long baseline study of waterlife before giving a go-ahead for Verdant Power's initial six-pack of underwater-windmill power generators. This delay follows a three-month holdup waiting for the Army Corps of Engineers to issue a notice about the project. Trey Taylor of Verdant, which is a start-up company, says efforts are under way to get the government agencies to take a broader view, but adds that if the requirements stand, they'll kill the project.

The Sheldrake Organization will become the manager of Island House and Westview in October. Approval by the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) was delayed, but has now been granted. The action continues Sheldrake's march toward privatization of the buildings, while residents continue to seek a path toward resident ownership of their buildings.

Democrat José Serrano will challenge Republican Olga Mendez for her State Senate seat, which represents Roosevelt Island. In last week's primary election, Serrano won a 2-to-1 victory over Nelson Denis, who fared better on Roosevelt Island than in the district as a whole. On the Island, 492 voted. The voting breakdown:

Votes* % Votes %

Serrano 8,088 59.0 271 55.1

Denis 3,949 28.8 193 39.2

Estrada 1,676 12.2 28 5.7

Votes cast: 13,713 492

The Residents Association is attempting to arrange a debate between Mendez and Serrano on Roosevelt Island. Serrano has accepted, and Mendez's office says it is working on possible dates.

The Residents Association has scheduled two community meetings in the RIRA Common Council's continuing effort to revise the organization's constitution. An informational meeting is slated for Thursday, October 7. A Town Meeting for the actual vote is scheduled five days later, on Tuesday, October 12. Changes are listed starting on page 6.

Meanwhile, no candidates for the RIRA Presidency have stepped forward. The current president, Matthew Katz, announced in the September 11 WIRE that he will not seek a third term in November's balloting.

The Public Safety Department and a drive to get the City to put an NYPD substation on the Island were the focus of a meeting Tuesday of the Roosevelt Island Committee of Community Board 8. The goal, as stated by committee co-chair Deirdre Breslin, is to come up with an action plan aimed at getting results, after NYPD turned down a request for the substation based on low crime rates and budget considerations.

Island activists on the Public Safety question have long believed that low-crime figures result from the failure of NYPD to integrate Island crime figures in the totals for the City precincts, and from the split jurisdiction between the 114th Precinct (Queens) and the 19th Precinct (Manhattan).

Suggestions for getting attention to the matter ranged from a campaign to get Islanders to call 911 (police and fire emergencies) or 311 (quality of life matters), rather than Public Safety, when complaints arise, to the staging of a mock terrorist action that would demonstrate the Island's vulnerability, as well as the vulnerability it contributes to nearby Manhattan and Queens, where the largest power generation plant in the State could become a target.

Another meeting on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday, October 19, at 7:30 in Westview's lower community room.