PARCnassau

Park Advocacy & Recreation Council of Nassau. A coalition of 150 park advocacy and/or user groups with a combined membership of over 250,000 county residents.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

A bad start for 2009

The Nassau County Park Follies continue unabated into 2009.

Tennis Courts
The County Administration is rushing pell mell into privatizing the Tennis Courts in three parks; Eisenhower, Christopher Morley and Cow Meadow. The upside is they are mandating the licensees upgrade the courts and provide "Bubbles" to cover the courts in inclement weather and off season; even requiring a "clubhouse" to be built in Eisenhower. The downside is that to recoup that investment, the licensees must charge a substantial premium to tennis players. Thus, park facilities that should be economically accessible to all Nassau residents will probably not be. Secondly, instead of the county improving the courts, collecting the revenues and supervising the operation, they are turning over the courts to private interests who will ultimately reap the financial benefit.

This may be in violation of the County Charter which mandates the Parks Department operate and supervise all recreational activities in the park System. Note that this will not deter the administration. As we previously noted, they are already in violation of the charter by eliminating the Park Department's maintenance capability and for putting private day camps in public parks.

Of note: The proposed licensees of the tennis courts. For Cow Meadow, it is Daniel Burgess of Freeport Indoor Tennis which already has a large all weather facility on Mill Road in Freeport. It will be interesting to determine their motivation. As to Eisenhower and Christopher Morley the apparent front man is one Nick Brebenal, a Romanian tennis coach and tennis pro at the Roslyn Country Club. He must be paid very well to make a Million plus dollar investment in these two parks.

It would be in the best interest of the parks and the public for the county legislature to thoroughly investigate these deals before they are set in stone.

4 Day Work Week

The county is also offering county union employees a voluntary 4 day work week! With approval, they can take of one day off ,unpaid, every week, Monday thru Friday. There is no loss of health benefits but does affect salary, vacation time, personal leave days and perhaps holidays and most important, retirement eligibility. What does this mean for parks (and other county services)?

The employees most likely to take advantage of this "reduce the budget" program are senior employees who have already accrued all necessary retirement credits and are looking to "wind down" their county employment. This could be to devote more time to moonlighting jobs, family considerations, etc. Great for the employees, God Bless them!

For the public, not so good! When senior employees with all the experience and institutional knowledge are not present, public service tends to be adversely affected. We've all had situations where junior and inexperienced employees have stood there totally confused and ineffective when presented with a pressing problem. So get ready, folks!

Last Park Lament of 2008

It appears that Nassau County is in violation of the County Charter! In its rush to disassemble its park system the administration has removed much of the duties and powers of the Nassau Department of Parks in contravention of Article XXIC of the County Charter.

This article mandates that the Parks Department Operate, Maintain and Repair all parks, playgrounds, museums, athletic fields, pools, rinks, golf courses, and maintain all grounds of passive and active parks, preserves, etc. etc.

This is required by a department already forced to give up its trade shops to DPW, specifically: the electrical, plumbing, carpentry and sign shops. After the first of the year, County parks will transfer the remaining 90 maintenance workers to DPW and the Parks Department will be a supplicant for all the necessary services to keep up the park system. They are and will remain one of the lowest in priority.

Further, County Parks is mandated to provide security personnel to provide security for all county park facilities. Instead the administration transferred all the Park Rangers a couple of years ago to the Police Department and designated them Public Safety. They no longer provide the necessary security to our park system.

Now one must wonder, why a county administration would gut and abandon its park system on one hand and request a million dollars to acquire new parkland and preserves on the other? In essence the county is saying give us more land that we will either give away or not maintain. Not only a disgrace but apparently a violation of law as well.

There is only one real solution to this mess. Transfer all Maintenance shops and remaining personnel, as well as all park rangers back to the parks system so its can meet its obligation not only to the county charter but to the park using public as well. Everyone should let their county legislator know how they feel in this matter.