Chamber gets updates on IP improvements

The Island Park Business and Residential Chamber presented an informational evening at the Island Park Library Jan. 8. The chamber officers discussed future plans, then introduced a veritable parade of officials.

Village Mayor Michael McGinty began with utilitarian and beautification items; new street and traffic signs, new garbage receptacles, a new village hall with a police sub station and new water lines. He said the Barrett power station rebuild was waiting for bids. The Mayor is staying on top of both the PSEG oil spill into the waters surrounding the village, and the possible toxins in the Waterford Road building that used to house Swan Fay cleaners, and is in touch with the Department of Environmental Conservation.

On a similar note newly sworn in Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky hit the ground running, touring the area behind Peter’s Clam Bar where dead fish have been spotted, possibly the result of the oil spill, and asking homeowners about NY Rising.

Tommy Asher of Operation Splash presented a film about Inky, a female pygmy sperm whale who was found stranded on the New Jersey coast on Thanksgiving Day in 1993. Volunteers from the Marine Mammal Stranding Network and US Coast Guard rescued her. Scientists at the National Aquarium in Baltimore discovered her stomach was full of plastic debris, which was keeping her from getting the nutrition she needed. Operation Splash is concerned about the unique hazard of Mylar balloons. They travel far out to sea before they burst, and are shiny on the water. Fish and other sea creatures mistake them for food and the plastic inside the animal’s digestive tract often leads to death.