Take back County Parks in N. Hempstead

In the current brou-ha-ha over the new and increased fees of the 2011 county parks budget, an interesting fact came to light. Included in that budget were fee increases for Hempstead Harbor Beach Park and Whitney Pond Park pool. On September 20th, while testifying before the county legislature on the budget, PARCnassau mentioned both parks had been given to North Hempstead in 2007. Someone wasn’t paying attention and a discussion broke out in the legislature over the status of the 9 county parks that were transferred to the town.

It appears that “the deal” was never finalized. Whether the county legislature did or didn’t submit a Home Rule Message to the State Legislature to support the transfers, apparently the State did not approve them as required in accordance with Alienation of Parkland case laws. While the Suozzi administration turned over the keys to those parks in 2007, the true ownership may never have changed!

In 2007, PARCnassau and others fought the transfers as being detrimental to all county residents who had paid through their property taxes for the acquisition, development and maintenance of those parks. North Hempstead residents would bear the full cost of those facilities, increasing their property taxes. All others would lose any voice in how those parks would operate and could be charged up to double the entrance fees and we believe, would eventually lose all access.

The previous administration announced the deal was done and gave North Hempstead $5,000,000 dollars to “sweeten the deal”. Indicative of how politics in Nassau works, that was not true and those 9 parks may still belong to the county.

If that is correct, the new administration should move immediately to retake those parks on behalf of all county taxpayers. A new Home Rule Message from the legislature should be sent to Albany demanding the cancellation of the first message and of any process to transfer those parks to North Hempstead.

Anyone who has visited Hempstead Harbor, Manhasset Hills and Whitney Pond parks will notice their conditions have not changed since 2007. Deplorable! Take them back and use monies from the county’s $150 million dollar Environmental Bond Fund to restore all of those parks. Hempstead Harbor has the potential to be one of the finest parks on Long Island. Now it is just a commuter parking lot and an eyesore.

The Mangano Administration is becoming expert in correcting the transgressions of its predecessor; so correcting this one should be a piece of cake.