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