Nassau County Parks: Public Or Private?

Lament Over Public Neglect And The Prospect Of Privatization

Our good friend Bruce Piel of PARCnassau cares deeply about the county's parks and open spaces. So much so that he chides Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and his administration at every turn for, on the one hand, failing to maintain and preserve our green spaces and places of recreation, and, on the other hand, attempting to privatize the parks, taking their stewardship -- and, perhaps, ultimately, their use -- out of the public domain.

Public parks, sustained for the public good, should be the province of a public trust, maintained and preserved by government for the people to enjoy.

But what happens when that government will not, or cannot, by reason of economics or otherwise, meet its obligation to care for our public parks?

Should public parks be "sold" to private entities? If so, will the public be precluded from future use or direction? Are we talking "namining rights," for a fee, enabling government to keep control over the parks, or the county simply handing over the keys to our parks to private enterprise, with the possibility of turning public facilities into "pay-to-play" private country clubs, or, perhaps worse still, open, green spaces into fodder for developers?

Nassau County parks are a natural treasure, to be enjoyed today by residents, and preserved as pristine oases for future generations of Long Islanders.

Private initiatives, carefully structured and scrutinized, to maintain and preserve our county parks can help, especially in these fiscally uncertain times. That said, Nassau's parks must forever remain public, the playgrounds, lakes, pastures, and ballfields that are the very hallmark of suburbia.
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The Privatization of Public Parks

The current Nassau County Administration is aggressively pursuing its goal of partially or completely privatizing most of its parks, preserves, beaches, museums, etc, etc. PARCnassau has always opposed most privatization which we believe demonstrates the county’s ignoring the public will and their fiduciary responsibility to our parks system.

That being said, there are some civic organizations that have generously offered time and personnel to maintaining and/or administering some facilities such as museums, and preserves. This, unfortunately, is not the norm. Much more likely are private entrepreneurs, sometimes disguised as a “friend’s group” or not-for-profit organization that has been given control of public parklands, lining their own pockets at the taxpayers expense. The private day care centers in several county parks would be a prime example. Private operators pay a minimum occupancy and use fee, no town or school taxes and reap exceptional profits. The public is excluded or forced to pay higher fees to compensate for their “stewardship”.

We believe this is intolerable and must be stopped and even reversed wherever possible. Instead the county is still chasing new political friends to enter into more privatization agreements.

Documents show that the county has already privatized fully or partially the following public properties:

· African American Museum
· Bailey Arboretum
· Cradle of Aviation
· Flower Hill Park
· Herrick’s Park
· Hewlett House
· Leeds Pond Preserve
· Northern Boulevard Park
· Roslyn Senior Citizens
· Sands Point Park & Preserve
· Silver Point Park
· Tanglewood Park & Preserve
· Wantagh Railroad Museum
· Welwyn Preserve
· William Cullen Bryant Preserve

These documents further show that the county executive and his staff are actively targeting the following properties for privatization.

· Baxter Pond Park
· Brookside Preserve
· Carmann’s Pond Park
· Carle Place Memorial Park
· Cedarmere
· Centenial Park
· Garvies Point Preserve
· Grant park
· Hall's Pond
· Inwood Park
· Jericho Historic Preserve
· Manetto Hills Preserve
· Massapequa Preserve
· Mill Neck Creek Preserve
· Meadowbrook Park
· Merrick (Meroke) Preserve
· Mill (Jones) Pond
· Muttontown Park & Preserve
· Old Bethpage Restoration Village
· Rev. Arthur Mackey Sr. Park
· Saddle Rock Grist Mill
· Sea Cliff Park
· Stannard’s Brook Park
· Stillwell Woods & Preserve
· Syosset Memorial Park

Are you concerned yet? Does the county walking away from its responsibility to operate and maintain these properties on our behalf bother you? Will we, the taxpayers of this county, continue to stand by while our children’s and grandchildren’s legacy is sold, bartered or given away? We hope not.

We haven’t even given you the worst of what is happening. A “Sportsplex” in Cedar Creek Park and Nickerson Beach Park and the sale of part of the Meadowbrook Preserve to an adjacent day camp that had used the site as their private property without the knowledge and permission of the county for years. These three instances will be the subjects of following updates.

Meanwhile, it is time for us to express our disgust and betrayal at the county administration’s cavalier treatment of our park system and demand the county recover and protect our parklands. It may be time for a public meeting to demonstrate our commitment. Will you and your membership come and show your support? Let us know.

Bruce Piel, Chairman
Park Advocacy & Recreation Council of Nassau (PARCnassau)
246 Twin Lane East
Wantagh , NY 11793
(516)783-8378
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A Sportsplex at Cedar Park?

The Nassau County Administration put out an RFP (Request for Proposal) last year for some one to build a Sportplex in Cedar Creek Park in Wantagh/Seaford. This was to include a Go Cart Track and miniature golf. After having to extend the submission deadline a few times, a would be developer has submitted the only proposal.

A group lead by one Philip Tavella of Diversified Financial Consultants. Inc. aka Investacorp, Inc. of Bellmore has submitted plans to build a humongous, professional Go Cart race track from Kart Attack of Bay Shore directly behind the Cedar Creek Water Treatment Plant and a Miniature Golf facility directly behind the Jones Beach Hotel on Byron Street in Wantagh .

On the following pages you can see maps of the proposals.

First the Go Cart Track: Kart Attack bill its tracks as competition grade, x-treme sport tracks for use by adults, primarily. Up to 12 souped up carts will race over an intricate, extended track creating a great deal of noise pollution especially to the Seaford residents and marinas just across Cedar Creek to the east, Cedar Creek Park proper to the south and Wantagh Park and marina to the west, not to mention the Water Treatment Plant itself (which adds its own noxious odors to the mix). Add to that the traffic and crowd noises and the little serenity available to county park users in Wantagh & Seaford will be lost.

Second the Miniature Golf: High mast lights and crowd noise adjacent to a residential area insures no rest for the weary in that area, either. It will also block easy access to the Jones Beach bike path along Wantagh Parkway .

Thirdly, a proposed ball field complex will mean the removal of the hill (the only one in the area) used by local children to snow sled in the winter.

This project will also negatively impact the Cedar Creek park Aerodrome and the small Tether Track which is nestled near the water treatment plant.

Is here an upside to this? Not for residents and park users in the area. The developer intends to make big bucks for his, up to 20 year, lease and is exempt from Town and School taxes. Not bad. Not bad at all. Mr. Tavella touts his directorship of the Darryl Strawberry Foundation aka Center for Autism Education as the only justification he needs for this facility and is unable or unwilling to counter objections above. Mr. Tavella must understand that the community affected is not against special needs children but believes they can be best served by a private facility on private land and not by one on a public park that harms the community at large.

More to come on Nickerson Beach & the Meadowbrook Preserve..

Bruce Piel, Chairman
Park Advocacy & Recreation Council of Nassau (PARCnassau)
246 Twin Lane East
Wantagh , NY , 11793
(516) 783-8378
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The views expressed by Mr. Piel are his own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Community Alliance. We welcome differing viewpoints on quality of life issues for publication on this blog.
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Questions? Concerns? Comments? If it impacts on Long Islander's quality of life, we want to hear about it, and to help you do something about it.

E-mail The Community Alliance at thecommunityalliance@yahoo.com.

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