Grand Theft Parks

Are some Nassau County Parks being stolen from the public? It appears that the Department of Parks, Recreation and Museums, aided and abetted by the County Administration intend to do exactly that. The parks will be given to the Town of North Hempstead which intends to pass them off as “new” town parks. These parks include Hempstead Harbor Beach Park in Port Washington , Whitney Pond Park in Manhasset plus smaller parks in East Williston, Manhasset, Plandome, Carle Place, Searingtown and Herricks.. This is just the latest in the never ending anti-park, anti-preserve, anti-museum and anti-historic site actions by the very county officials responsible for the preservation and improvement of these facilities.

Residents of North Hempstead will learn that the costs of maintaining these facilities, once borne equally by all county taxpayers, will now be their responsibility alone with an inevitable increase in their taxes. To insure they are only paying for exclusive services, the town will eventually try to either restrict the parks to “residents only” or institute higher non-resident use fees. What does this mean to county taxpayers residing in Oyster Bay or Hempstead, who have paid for the acquisition, development and maintenance of these recreational lands in the first place? Within a year or two they will either be excluded or penalized if they wish to use or visit these parks.

Why is this happening? Nassau County Administration over the past 3 years has shown its total disregard for preserving county parks and facilities. Virtually every year they have proposed the privatization, sale or transfer of county parklands to reduce the budget without regard to the effect on county residents. To save money they have tried to privatize the county golf courses, “leased” county parkland to private day camps and offered to give away county parks to other governments, often with financial sweeteners to the recipients.

What recourse does a county taxpayer have to protect his or her interest in these open spaces? For one, the transfer must initially be authorized by the County Legislature and all citizens must let their local legislators know they are against this theft of county parks. Second, under NYS case law, transfers which change the rules of access (i.e. North Hempstead residents only) should be authorized by the New York State Legislature. This provides state government oversight to local governments that might otherwise dispose of or sell off public lands to gain a temporary political or financial advantage. It is hoped that the state assemblymen and senators will take a broader view of such shenanigans, recognize the damage to average taxpayer and refuse to endorse them.

These parks, preserves, museums and historic sites belong to all the taxpayers in Nassau County. Through our property taxes and user fees, we have paid for their acquisition, development and maintenance. County government is not the owner but the trustee of these facilities. Unfortunately our county government has consistently violated its fiduciary responsibility for public lands. This betrayal of trust must stop now and it is up to each taxpayer to stand up and protect his or her rights and the rights of their children and grandchildren to freely access all county parklands.



Bruce Piel is the Chairman of the Park Advocacy & Recreation Council of Nassau (PARCnassau), a coalition of 158 park advocacy and user groups with a combined membership of over 250,000 county residents.

PARCnassau
246 Twin Lane East
Wantagh, NY 11793-1963
(516) 783-8378

Separation of Church & Parks

Separation of Church & Parks
By Bruce Piel

On Saturday, September 28th, a Freeport Church rented the Lakeside Theatre in Eisenhower Park for a religious revival meeting. This is the second year the Perfecting Faith Church has hosted “New York Call” in the park. Using a public park for this activity raises some disturbing questions.

Religious activities such as revival meetings, retreats, bible studies, group prayers, etc. for any faith based organization, normally is to be encouraged and appreciated. Reinforcing doctrines of love, generosity, morality and peace by Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. usually serve to improve our society and interfaith cooperation. Where this becomes problematic is when an inappropriate venue is used for the services.

Public parks are provided by tax monies for public recreation. A revival meeting may be congregational, inspirational and interdenominational but not recreational. Last year, organizer Pastor Donnie McClurkin contracted with the Nassau County Department of Recreation and Parks for a “concert” at the Lakeside theatre and agreed to pay a fee of $12,000 to hold the event. And while music was certainly a part of the New York Call, the event was not just a concert. Apparently the collections last year were substantial enough for the Perfecting Faith Church to hire an Armored Car Service to pickup the donations from the faithful. Disturbingly, the Parks Department has yet to receive the $12,000 fee.

Since the county provided police and park personnel to monitor and support the event a case could be made that last year was a government supported religious service which raises constitutional concerns.

Beyond that, it would appear that Nassau and Long Island have other venues beside recreational parks that could be used, for a fee, for such events. The Veteran’s Coliseum immediately comes to mind and if an outdoor site is desired, the church could lease the parking lot instead of the building. Citibank Ball Park in Islip would be another possibility. Parks would not appear to be appropriate venues for this type of religious event.

These questions should be addressed by the County Administration and the Legislature long before any contract is signed by the Parks Department to hold a religious event on public lands. Any large scale event such as this also denies the general public access to the park for legitimate recreational uses. Nassau County parks are reserved for county residents and their guests. Having 5,000 or more participate in the “Call” from all over the New York metropolitan area would appear to strain the definition of guests.

We should recognize that reaffirmation of established religious tenets and interfaith harmony is generally beneficial to any society especially a multi-cultural one such as ours. Every effort should be made to encourage and support such events. To insure that public rights and constitutional concerns are met, government and religious institutions should be scrupulous in avoiding any misperceptions. Choosing a proper site would be a major part of such a process. Failure to do so only taints an otherwise laudable activity.

Since the second “New York Call” is now history, now would be the time for the Perfecting Faith Church of Freeport and the 130 other metropolitan area churches that participated to begin looking for a more appropriate venue for next year’s gathering and also address the oversight in payment of last year’s fee.