Bayswater Park saved, Bay Park still in peril

The Bayswater Park, Inwood is safe for the moment. See the article below dated April 20, 2011 from The Patch newspaper from that area. East Rockaway's Bay Park's 30 year "lease"is still on the block and is being fought.

Bruce Piel

County to Leave Inwood Open Lot As Is Property that children play on will not be sold to Inwood Country Club.

By Stephen J. Bronner April 20, 2011

Nassau County has pulled the plug on the potential sale of an open lot in Inwood that local children use as a play area.
At the Planning Commission's Thursday meeting, the county’s real estate office withdrew the case on the lot located at Bayswater Boulevard and Peppe Road and no vote was taken, according to a county spokesperson. The only potential buyer was the Inwood Country Club, which considered using the space for a maintenance facility.

“We are thrilled that the property appears safe for now and we believe [it] will not be sold,” Patty Vacchio, the secretary of the Inwood Civic Association who lives across the street from the lot, told Patch on Monday. “We have no immediate plans for the property, although neighbors have expressed some interest in ensuring that the property remain safe so we don’t have to go through this ‘worry’ again.”

The lot, although never designated as parkland, used to house swings and a seesaw, according to residents of the community. Even though the land was eventually cleared, kids still use the land, flying kites and playing soccer, football and stickball.

The county, in dire fiscal straits, has been looking to sell off properties. One of the pieces under consideration was the Bayswater lot. Nassau is also deciding on the fate of the Inwood property that houses its Public Works garage, which may be closed. Residents have also expressed displeasure with that potential move.

“We’re not asking for more, we’re just saying keep it how it is,” Peter Sobol said last week at a public meeting he helped arrange on the Bayswater property. “Once open space is gone, it’s lost forever. We’re just trying to say: this is our piece, we want to keep it.”

At that hearing, all the residents in the room raised their hands when asked if they agreed. In attendance of the meeting was Kristen Kotak, a member of the Open Space & Parks Advisory Committee, which voted last Wednesday to leave the lot as is.