COOPERATIVE VILLAGE

Harold "Heshey" Jacob, longtime property manger of the sister co-ops Hillman Houses and East River Housing, knew in 2009 that sludgy and sooty No. 6 heating oil was on its way out. With the help of New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who lives in Hillman, he convinced the co-op boards of the 2,500 -unit, seven-building complex to switch to dual-fuel systems using cleaner No. 2 oil and, mainly, natural gas. It was a big, big switch. How did he manage to convince not one but three boards to go that route?

Harold Jacob is the longtime property manger of the Hillman Houses and East River Housing, two of the four communities comprising the Lower East Side's Cooperative Village — colloquially called Co-op Village or "the Grand Street co-ops." He decided in 2009 that the time had come for Co-op Village to wean itself off the highly polluting No. 6 heating oil, ushering in a new era of energy efficiency, dramatically reducing pollution and lowering the energy consumption of the 2,500 apartments in the seven buildings he manages. Hillman and East River now each use a dual-fuel system that relies mainly on natural gas and can periodically switch to the cleaner No. 2 oil.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents.

This week, a high-end co-op has a low-rent board, according to a lawsuit claiming it's avoiding responsibility for fecal-contaminated water coming from the tap. Yuck. Plus, a pit bull featured on Animal Planet bites a condo neighbor, and elsewhere a pit-bull owner defies a condominium's no-dogs rule without even bothering to make up a "therapy animal" claim. Queens, the home of last year's tax-protest movement, examines the just-renewed tax abatement, and what happens when your storage locker gets broken into? Plus: An infestation of artists, all over Co-op Village!