Sowing Wild Oats At The Levy Preserve
So, there are a few new "kids" on the block -- or, should we say, in Hempstead Town's Levy Preserve.
Seems those Nigerian goats brought in to keep the pastures neat and trim had some time left over after their official lawn-cutting duties. Hope they weren't (cover your ears, boys and girls) procreating on duty, on the taxpayers' dime!
Anyway, add nine (count 'em, 9) kids to the Census -- and, apparently, to the Town of Hempstead payroll (you think maintaining all these goats comes cheap?).
Be that as it may, Town officials now want you to name the new goats. [Their parents were named after five of the Seven Dwarfs when they were adopted by the Town. Happy, Bashful and Sleepy are the proud mothers (and you thought they were members of the Town Board).]
Names, anyone?
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From the Town of Hempstead:
Town's "Kid" Workforce Triples at no Cost to Taxpayers:
Weed-Eating Goats Born at Levy Preserve; Residents Invited to Name Newborns
Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray and Councilwoman Angie Cullin are proud to welcome nine “kids” to the town workforce. The newborns are the progeny of five Nigerian dwarf goats that the town adopted last March to eradicate the overgrowth of brush and grass at Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve in Merrick.
“This was a very exciting week for us. On April 29th ‘Happy’ gave birth to the first two members of our new dwarf goat family,” said Murray. “On May 1st ‘Bashful’ had three kids and then on May 4th ‘Sleepy’ added four more kids to the herd.”
The town adopted four females and one male goat last spring as an ecologically friendly way to control weeds and brush overgrowth at the preserve. The original five goats cost the town just over $1,000 to obtain. The goats were the latest pets-workers-employees to complement the ecological mission of the landfill-turned- nature preserve. Several years before, Hempstead Town added a flock of Guinea fowl, turkey-sized birds, as an environmentally friendly alternative to insecticides in the control of ticks at the preserve. In tandem, the birds and goats have been a low-cost, ecologically responsible solution to the challenges that nature presents at a waterfront nature habitat.
“Our Preserve staff named the first goats after five of the fabled seven dwarfs,” noted Cullin. “We now need the help of our creative residents to name the new members of our herd.”
Pictures of the nine kids will be posted on the town’s website (www.toh.li) for residents to view before they submit name suggestions. There are 4 baby male goats and 5 baby female goats. Proposed names can be sent to susatre@tohmail.org. All submissions must be received by May 31st.
“The birth of any baby is an event to celebrate but this ‘baby-boom’ has almost tripled our weeding workforce at Levy Park which is particularly joyful,” concluded Supervisor Murray.
I used to be able to laugh at this kind of crap, but I must admit it gets ever more harder to do that when I consider how the Town continues to deteriorate. Indeed, the constant "don't worry be happy" messages you get from Kate Murray reflect a considered strategy to avoid taking on the tough problems we have, such as crumbling infrastructure, anemic economic development, wasteful special districts and blighted downtowns.
ReplyDeleteStill, I know that being cranky all the time gets to be a real drag after a while, so here's my attempt to once again find some humor: It's now clear to me that Hempstead's town government is once again, as they often assert, ahead of the curve. Indeed in line with some of the recent dialogue concerning a 51st state, it's apparent that Hempstead has already seceeded from New York and established residency in the new State of Denial....
Lame I know - guess I'll go back to being cranky.