"Indeed, there is only one thing worse than the stench emanating from Bay Park, and that is the foul aroma of government that refuses to address the concerns of the residents it represents."

Anthony J. Santino, Town of Hempstead Senior Councilman

ROUND 1 - JANUARY 14, 2008

On Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at the inauguration of the Nassau County Legislature, a session that is normally for organizational purposes only, the Rules Committee met and voted 5-3 along party lines to push forward the Suozzi administration's request to pass a bill to incorporate the sewer systems of the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence into the county's sewage treatment plant at Bay Park. Also included in the plan was the deal for the county to take over the waste treatment plant in the city of Glen Cove.

Minority Leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) said the Republicans voted NO and are opposed to the sewer bill because of a lack of information to support it and that the whole move seemed to stink of a financial bailout of Glen Cove, the hometown of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and new Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove). The fact that Tom Suozzi's cousin Ralph is Mayor of the City of Glen Cove makes it reek even further. During the committee meeting the Republican minority grilled Suozzi's Commissioner of Public Works, Ray Ribeiro, who defended the county's plan saying it will save money and help the environment and denied the move was a bailout.

Having been rushed through the committees, the bill was now ready to come to a vote before the full legislature on January 14, 2008 despite many unanswered questions. The fact that the three localities included in the consolidation plan had yet to give the county their formal approval, the fact that NIFA (the Nassau Interim Finance Authority) was still seeking financial information on the plan, the fact that budget analysts would have to work through the weekend to finish a complete analysis of the county takeover of the sewer systems, and the fact that legislators were given a thick, technical, consolidation plan study to look at just two days before the plan was to come to a vote mattered not to the administration and the Democrat Majority, who were determined to pass this bill as quickly as possible.

On Monday, January 14, 2008 the full legislature convened in Mineola at 11:00AM (after delaying the start of the meeting for an hour due to "bad weather") to put the consolidation plan to a vote. The DPW received the approval from three localities on Sunday, January 13th. The County Comptroller, Howard Weitzman, delivered a report to the legislators 5 minutes prior to the beginning of the legislative session. Eric Naughton, the director of the Office of Legislative Budget Review delivered his fiscal report to the legislators midway through the hearing. Yet, regardless of the fact that none of the legislators would have the proper time to review these documents to help them make an informed decision, the bill was brought to the calendar.

Several Bay Park residents came to the meeting, armed with over 700 signatures collected in just 2 days, to express the concerns of the community on the impact of consolidating the sewer systems of Cedarhurst and Lawrence into the plant at Bay Park. The residents of Bay Park spoke eloquently and intelligently about their concerns of adding more sewage to the plant which would inturn increase the effluent going into Reynolds Channel. What about the already toxic smells that emanate from the plant, would they increase? Would the increased effluent cause our bay beaches to be closed more often in the summer due to high bacteria levels? If the plant already has problems handling "peak flow" how could they possible take on another million plus gallons of sewage on a daily basis? What would be the effect of increased effluent on our already stressed marine ecosystem? And, most importantly, why was this being rammed down the residents throats so rapidly?

The Democrat majority were taken aback by the knowledge of the people from Bay Park, I guess they thought they would only have to defend the plan as a bailout to Glen Cove. Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick) led the charge against the residents of Bay Park and towed the administration line in saying that this would be beneficial to everyone in the long run. Legislator Fran Becker (R-Lynbrook), whose area also covers all of East Rockaway except for Bay Park, jumped to the residents defense saying that the plan was ill-conceived from the get go and that lots of questions still remained and that at the very least the plan should be tabled until everyone had more information. Presiding Officer Yatauro then got into an argument with Legislator Becker and proceeded to shut off his microphone. "This is a disgrace" cried Legislator Becker as Yatauro ignored his shouts.

After a bit of turbulence, the meeting resumed as residents kept asking the legislators for real answers to real issues involved in consolidation. Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside), who represents the 7th LD which includes Bay Park, added absolutely nothing to the meeting and was rude and disrespectful to his constituents. As the residents of Bay Park pled their case, Legislator Toback was playing with his cell phone and having side conversations with his fellow Democrat legislators while completely ignoring his constituents. Toback even had the audacity to get up and leave the room several times as the residents of Bay Park spoke to the legislature.

After all the residents of Bay Park got up to speak out against consolidation, three fishermen from Freeport (Denenberg's district) said that consolidation was beneficial for the environment of the whole South Shore because the plants at Cedarhurst and Lawrence are so dilapidated that the cleaner effluent that Bay Park spews out is better.

Then environmentalist Rob Weltner, President of Operation Splash, also spoke to the legislators saying that consolidation of those plants would be better for the western bays in the short term, but an ocean outfall pipe was needed in the long term to prevent the bay from completely dying. Legislator Denenberg jumped on that saying the only way the county could ever get the grant money needed to install an ocean outfall pipe (about $200 mil) was to consolidate, thereby showing the State/Feds our environmental efforts. The thing is, none of these people live in Bay Park, so while their hearts may be in the right place, they do not have to deal with the smells, truck traffic, foamy tides, closed beaches, etc. that residents of Bay Park already must deal with as a part of their daily lives.

Legislator Denenberg then called in Ray Ribeiro, the Commissioner of DPW, and played softball with him asking him questions that must have been rehearsed more than a high school production of "Guys & Dolls". Mr. Ribeiro stated that the county's cost to consolidate would be $30 million, although it could go as high as $45 mil, which would work out to only about $5.00 and change per year for each county resident. As if we don't have to cough up enough already.

Sick of the fluff taking place in front of him, Legislator John Ciotti (R-Elmont) swooped in on Ribeiro and smacked him around verbally. Why did the county comptroller's endorsement letter say that the plan makes sense environmentally? Shouldn't his concern be the finances of it? Why was NIFA's input not included in the plan? Why was independent budget director Eric Naughton sitting at the meeting but not called upon to testify? With all these questions swirling about, he motioned for the item to be tabled until the next meeting in two weeks so that everyone involved had more time to study the plan. A vote was called to table it and our legislator, Jeff Toback, was the first to say no. The motion was voted down along party lines so Mr. Ciotti kept throwing it at Commissioner Ribeiro, who was now visibly flustered. Unhappy with Ciotti's questioning of the plan Diane Yatauro then shut off his microphone too, saying he was yelling too loudly. Amazing how the Presiding Officer never once shut off the microphone of a fellow Democrat!

After three hours of testimony on the issue of consolidation, Presiding Officer Yatauro called for the item to be voted on. With their agenda already in place despite the testimonies of Bay Park residents, the Democrats cast their 10 YES votes and the Republicans cast their 8 NO votes (Legislator Schmitt was absent) and the bill was passed 10-8. The residents of Bay Park left the legislative chamber angered and sickened by this colossal failure of their elected officials to represent their best interests.

The residents of Bay Park weren't the only ones disgusted by the events of 1/14/08. In Newsday the following day columnist Joye Brown wrote a scathing article (www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lijoy155538606jan15,0,2076621.column) on the shenanigans of Diane Yatauro and the buffoons in the legislative majority. She even said it was such a bad parody of what local government should be that the only solution was to abolish the Nassau County Legislature completely.

To the administration and majority legislators, the consolidation deal was done. But the residents of Bay Park had only begun to fight.

The battle to stop consolidation raged on for 4 months with many brave community members taking time out of their lives to attend legislative meetings in Mineola, to try to get the legislators to change their minds on consolidation. As at the first meeting, the people were bullied, talked down to, had their integrity questioned and were generally treated like raw sewage, but we still came at them, undaunted.

Finally, our prayers were answered, the sewage consolidation plan was put into the county's capitol budget plan, but the Republican minority would not give any votes needed to pass the budget (a 13 vote super-majority is needed to pass the budget)

Unfortunately, the county now has come up with a plan to get around needing a super-majority vote by having some state environmental group fund the money needed or by having the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence bond for the money themselves. Either way it could mean the county's ill-conceived consolidation plan may indeed become a reality.

ROUND 2 - APRIL 21, 2009

And so it begins . . . again.

A phone call from Operation Splash President Rob Weltner to one of the members of the Green Bay Parkers notifies her of a meeting that was held on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 by Nassau County Public Works Dept. Commissioner Ray Ribeiro at the recreation center in Freeport. The meeting is being held to show the members of Operation Splash the county’s 20 year master plan for sewage treatment.

Imagine the surprise when a few concerned citizens from Bay Park showed up at the meeting and saw that the entire presentation was about the county’s plan for the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant.

Sitting on the dais along with Commissioner Ribeiro was Adrienne Esposito and some other lady from the environmental group Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE), a lady from the NY State DEC office and some guy from the EPA, along with two other county DPW guys. I always wonder when I see Adrienne Esposito sitting side by side with Nassau County officials if she is truly an advocate of the environment or merely another lobbyist on County Executive Tom Suozzi’s payroll.

Ribeiro went through his presentation and laid out the master plan which included the consolidation of the sewer plants of the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence into the Bay Park facility.

After his presentation they opened the floor to questions. One of the most important ones asked was “How could the county find the funding needed to consolidate when the money for it was taken out of the budget?” Ribeiro looked straight at the folks from Bay Park and said “We’ll get the money somehow and we’re going to get this done.”

The day prior to the Operation Splash meeting, several members of the Green Bay Parkers attended the legislative meeting in Mineola to present County Executive Tom Suozzi and all 19 members of the county legislature with a copy of our “Save The Bay” Proposal. The purpose of the proposal was to show the county that there are many different ways to handle sewage treatment that are already being utilized across the nation and would benefit the environment and the quality of life for those who live near Nassau’s sewer plants.

The “Save The Bay” proposal was our way of being pro-active and trying to open up a dialog with the county to seek out alternatives that would benefit everyone in the long run, but it was neglected by most of the legislators and given to DPW Commissioner Ribeiro to dissect line by line on how none of the alternatives could ever be applied to sewage treatment in Nassau County because of the immense costs. And so Ray and the county indeed missed the entire point of the proposal by a mile.

Two days before the legislative meeting is to be held in Mineola on May 18th, a letter from our legislative lunkhead, Jeff Toback, arrives at East Rockaway resident’s homes informing them that the county has entered into an inter-municipal agreement with the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence to consolidate their sewage plants into Bay Park. The letter states that the money would be provided by the State as part of a stimulus package, so the county didn’t need to put it in the capitol plan and seek the super majority of the 13 “yes” votes the couldn’t get. The letter also said that the Public Works Committee will be holding a hearing at 2:00 PM to vote on consolidation.

During the meeting someone asked Toback why he sent the letter out on such short notice, his reply was that he found out about the consolidation agreement with Cedarhurst and Lawrence after their village boards voted "yes" to the plan on Tuesday, May 12th and drafted the letter and mailed it right away on Wednesday, May 13th. Funny how the letter was actually dated Monday, May 11th when he insisted he was oblivious to it until Tuesday. Anyhow, Toback stated on public record he notified the community as soon as he found out. Rumor has it that he actually had that same letter signed, sealed and ready to be mailed out two weeks earlier but pulled it back because too many items were already on the legislative calendar and he couldn't get the consolidation agreement into the committee meetings agenda. So much for honesty!

Even though the meeting is held at an inconvenient time, about 20 concerned citizens from the Bay Park/East Rockaway community showed up to let the county know that we are still not convinced the Bay Park facility could handle more sewage as it has many problems already. We again told the legislators of our need for an ocean outfall pipe and relayed our concerns about plant odors, foamy shorelines at the beach, the marine ecosystem, the death of the bay, etc. but once again, our heartfelt pleas fell on deaf ears. After more than two hours of debate, the item was passed through on a vote along party lines 5-4, even though none of the questions that arose during the hearing were ever answered straight-forward and honestly.

With the consolidation plan front and center once again at the full legislature session on June 8th, about thirty concerned residents from Bay Park/ East Rockaway attended the meeting to voice our concerns about the county pushing this ill-conceived consolidation plan through without first knowing what the environmental impact to the bay would be. We begged and pled. We yelled and screamed. We tried and tried to get these legislators to understand that we live there and know that the Bay Park sewage treatment plant is already having a major environmental impact on the bay and is the lead cause of it’s impending doom.

A vote to table the item was voted down along party lines 10 -9. After much debate and few real answers to anything of importance, the plan to consolidate Cedarhurst and Lawrence into the Bay Park plant was passed through by a vote of 11 -8 because this time Legislator Denise Ford (R-Long Beach), sided with the Democrat Majority on the legislature and passed the consolidation plan through.

Why would Legislator Ford vote in favor of consolidation when that would just mean more sewage dumped into Reynolds Channel, which borders all of her constituents in Long Beach that live on the bay side? And why would she vote “yes” when she voted in favor of tabling the item just minutes earlier due to lack of information?
Oh, I know why. I bet Ms. Ford doesn’t want to look like a hypocrite and vote “no” to consolidate Cedarhurst and Lawrence when she will undoubtedly have to vote “yes” in a few months when the county announces they are going to consolidate the sewage plant from Long Beach into the Bay Park facility.

Just like with Cedarhurst and Lawrence, the county will then state that because the Long Beach plant has been allowed to get run down over the years, it will be soooooooooooo much better for the environment to pump their sewage into the Bay Park facility because it operates sooooooooooooo much better.

On July 7th, 2009, a group of forty concerned citizens from Bay Park/East Rockaway attended the 6:00PM session of the legislature in Mineola. The group arrived around 5:30 and rallied out front to let the county know they must do all they can to help save the bay. A few good guys running for office showed up at the rally and thanked us for standing up for the community and said they would stand along with us, so a big THANK YOU to Howard Kopel (Running for County Legislator - 7th LD) and George Maragos (Running for Nassau County Comptroller), you got our vote!

After marching out in front of the legislative building for a while and getting lots of cars honking in support as they rolled down Franklin Avenue, the group went inside and watched as the real fireworks began. First we were made to wait 2 hours before getting a chance to speak as the legislature finished up their Rules Committee meeting. Then Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), said the full legislative meeting would begin after a 10 minute recess. When someone yelled out they were already two hours late and better make sure 10 minutes is only 10 minutes she shot back, "I have people here who will remove you if you keep making outbursts. I won't have this turn into a circus!" and she stormed off to the caucus room with the other legislators for almost 50 MINUTES as the people who came to speak sat patiently in the audience.

After the meeting finally began, Yatauro opened up the floor to public comment. One after one, concerned citizens from Bay Park/East Rockaway got up and stated their concerns about preventing the death of the bay to the legislators. First it was simple questions asked, then it turned into a free for all, with legislators yelling at residents, residents yelling at legislators, legislators yelling at legislators, and that dope Toback accusing the people from Bay Park of showing up only because we were riled up and pushed into it by Town of Hempstead Councilman Tony Santino (R-East Rockaway).

After a while Yatauro declared she must get on with regular business of the legislator and suspended public comment until the end of the meeting, leaving people who sat there for almost FOUR HOURS waiting to speak to the legislature completely hanging. After more fighting, Yatauro allowed the public to speak again at almost midnight. A few of the die-hard Green Bay Parkers who witnessed the entire evening's shenanigans, got up to speak to close out the night which finally ended around 12:30 AM.

When one resident asked the legislature to provide the Green Bay Parkers with a copy of the county's environmental study, the hemming and hawing began and people were called upon to find this report, until DPW Commissioner Ribeiro came up to the mic and publicly stated that the was no actual environmental study done to see what impact the plant has on the bay and what impact consolidation would have. The only environmental study ever done was that of the paid consultants who drew up the master plan for the county. Yet it's all okay Ribeiro assured us.

Earlier during a break in the meeting, Ribeiro was holding court in the entrance hall outside the legislative chamber telling the residents of Bay Park/East Rockaway that he and the county really want be a good neighbor and they are just as concerned about the environment as we are. Ray turned on the charm and worked the crowd, even offering the rumor that now Tom Suozzi wants an ocean outfall pipe for Bay Park because he wants to be seen as an environmentally friendly candidate during re-election this November.

A week after the rally and Ray's good neighbor speech, an article in Newsday tells of a recent meeting held by sewer officials from the village of Great Neck about the future of their sewage plants, the Great Neck Water Pollution Control facility and the Great Neck Village Sewage Treatment Plant.

It seems that the residents of Great Neck voted in 2008 to combine the two plants and build a new state-of-the-art sewage system but North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman put a halt to the project when told it would cost about $70 million to construct. Kaiman then said he planned to ask Nassau County officials the feasibility of diverting Great Neck’s sewage to one of the South Shore facilities, such as the sewage treatment plant in Bay Park.

Commissioner Ribeiro replied that the county supports diversion as the most cost-effective and environmentally sound option for Great Neck’s two sewage treatment facilities. "The concept still makes sense to us," Ribeiro stated. "If the town is talking about re-initiating those discussions, we would certainly do that." I wonder if being a good neighbor means hiding the painful truth from people?

On June 8th, the Nassau County Legislature voted in favor of adding the sewage from the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence to Bay Park despite the persistent protests of concerned citizens that the plant needs major upgrades. Now the county possibly wants Great Neck to consolidate 5.3 million more gallons of sewage each day into our plant without performing significant upgrades or constructing an ocean outfall pipe first? Am I the crazy one here?

And then comes Long Beach. Then Atlantic Beach. And so on and so on until the bay is gone! We demand the county to cease and desist from diverting any sewage to the Bay Park plant until they do their job and perform necessary upgrades to better treat the almost 65 million gallons of effluent that is already dumped into the bay each and every day.

And that is why we will continue to fight. Until Nassau County realizes every day they wait to perform necessary upgrades to the Bay Park plant is one day closer to death for the bay, we will be there to remind them. Until the beach is no longer coated with a disgusting foam rimming the shoreline, we will continue to hold our elected officials to the fire and get them to do everything in their means to help save the bay from destruction. Until the marine ecosystem of our bay returns to its proper health and the county no longer dumps almost 65 million gallons of effluent into Reynolds Channel each day, we will get on their case to ensure future generations will be able to enjoy the beauty of the bay and all the bounties it has to offer the residents of Nassau County.

Stay tuned for round 3!

BAY PARK RESIDENTS BRING STINK TO MINEOLA!!!

~ July 2009 ~

And even Theodore Roosevelt gets into the spirit of things at our rally in Mineola to SAVE THE BAY!!!

BAY PARK RESIDENTS ANTI-CONSOLIDATION RALLY!!!

~ April 2008 ~

Thanks to all the concerned citizens who came out by the hundreds to support the Green Bay Parkers and let the county know, loud and clear, that we are NOT Nassau County's Toilet!!!

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