YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. - Year in and year out, a bright spot in the lives of hundreds of seniors who live in the Jefferson Village Senior Condominiums here has been the bus tours that originate at the complex.
Now, the price of those tours to casinos, restaurants, resorts, theaters and other fun spots has gone up. But, the increase isn't because of price gouging by the motorcoach companies that transport residents of Jefferson Village.
Instead, the culprit is the homeowners' association and its hired management company.
Groups and individuals who reside in the complex and organize the dozen or so trips from the property every month must now pay the association a $50 fee each time a coach stops to pick up residents for a trip. And, the trip sponsors are passing on the expense to the tour participants, adding another couple of dollars to the cost of the trip.
"Most of these people are on fixed income and another dollar or two can be a lot of money for them," says Sol Zeller, charter manager for World Touring Buses in Dix Hills, N.Y., which operates three or four casino runs a month from Jefferson Village.
He said there's concern among motorcoach operators serving the property that the idea for the $50 pickup fee could spread to other condominium properties and apartment complexes. "It could set a very dangerous precedent," he asserts.
Melissa Strang-Fitzgibbon, general manager of Chappaqua Transportation Inc. in Fishkill, N.Y., which contracts with the community of Yorktown Heights to runs tours from the complex for residents who take part in seniors' programs sponsored by the local parks and recreation department, calls the fee ridiculous. "You invite people to come live there and then charge them this," she says.
Jefferson Village, which has 1,000 units and about 1,600 residents, initiated the fee in February after a motorcoach backed into a light pole on the complex property. The idea reportedly was for the association to build a fund that could be used to pay for any future damage that buses might cause when they are on the property.
"We don't know why they just didn't go after the company that knocked down the pole instead of collecting from everybody," says Todd Orlowski, recreation supervisor for the town. Orlowski reports that the town plans to look into the issue and see if it can do something about it, including possibly trying to persuade the association to drop the charge.
Officials of the management company, RGI Properties Inc., which is responsible for collecting the money, refuse to discuss the issue.
Meantime, residents of the complex say they are paying the fee under protest and might possibly sue the association and management company to recover their money. "We don't believe they have a legal right to impose the fee," said one long-time resident who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the management company.
Zeller says the coach operators have looked into the possibility of picking up passengers from a mall parking lot across the street from the complex to avoid the fee, but the mall managers will not allow the buses onto the property. "Another company tried it and a woman almost got hit by a car crossing the street on the way to the bus," he said. "It's a very busy street."
Going to other locations beyond the complex would not work either, according to Orlowski. "A lot of the residents would be unable to do that because they don't have transportation."