Making a Difference for Residents

Meet Krzysztof Wasik, Heating Oversight Team Specialist

We’re periodically featuring the hardworking staff members who are making a difference for residents. Learn more about how we’re becoming a better landlord through their efforts. In this installment, meet Krzysztof Wasik, a Heating Oversight Team Specialist in the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Department. An employee since 2014, he is a member of NYCHA’s Employee Engagement Committee and is also a former resident of the O’Dwyer Gardens development in Brooklyn.

According to George Adames, Deputy Director of Buildings Systems Safety: “Mr. Wasik hit the ground running when starting his role on the Heating Oversight Team, which helps resolve heat complaints and determine the root cause of heat outages. And from the start of the pandemic, he was part of EHS’s COVID-19 Response Addressing Safety and Health (CRASH) team, which provides development staff with the latest COVID-19 information and safety guidance as well as personal protective equipment such as face coverings, gloves, and hand sanitizer.”

“As a Heating Oversight Team Specialist, I oversee the inspections, maintenance, and repairs of our heating equipment performed by NYCHA staff, and our contractors, to make sure that residents have heat and hot water. I also conduct annual boiler room inspections of heating equipment, providing corrective action reports to our Heating Management Services Department (HMSD) that will improve service delivery for residents. I work in the Building Systems Safety Unit of the EHS Department. While my team focuses on heat and hot water, other teams in Building Systems Safety make sure that fire safety and elevator mechanical equipment are in compliance.

“My day begins with monitoring our internal systems for any heat or hot water service interruptions. If there are any issues, I respond and investigate, interviewing Heating staff and NYCHA residents, inspecting heating equipment, and escalating any immediate safety concerns to my team’s Administrator.

“I started out at NYCHA as a Maintenance Worker in HMSD. I was promoted to Oil Burner Mechanic and then Assistant Superintendent before becoming a Heating Oversight Team Specialist last year. I want to make sure that all our work is done safely and in accordance with standard procedures. And my colleagues and I are doing everything we can to make sure that residents have services like heat and hot water.

“What I love about NYCHA is that while we are all different individuals, we are all part of the same NYCHA family. Everyone has something valuable to say and we all learn from each other’s perspective. As I learned from Fernando Quintero, the now-retired instructor at NYCHA’s Sheepshead Training Center who trained great heating personnel for decades, ‘You are looking without looking.’ He taught me everything I know about NYCHA’s heat and hot water delivery systems.

“I like the improvements I’m seeing at NYCHA. We are replacing old boilers with new, high-tech boilers, which is a big step forward – upgrading our systems is so important. We are also becoming more digital, which is helping us work better.

“And I’d just like to say that we are NYCHA strong!”