Hall's Pond renovation still not complete

West Hempstead Boy Scouts will spend their Saturday cleaning up Hall’s Pond Park and they’ve invited residents of the community to join them. The only problem is that they’re limited to sweeping and removing leaves and debris from the park’s walkways and around its benches.

“They can’t do anything in the way of doing weeding or planting or something like that because that would be interfering with the contractor,” according to Rosalie Norton, president of the West Hempstead Community Support Association. And interfering with the contractor’s work — or doing anything that could possibly be construed as interference — is the last thing West Hempstead residents want: they have waited long enough for construction and renovation work to be completed at the park.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” Norton said. “It’s been frustrating because we were promised it was going to be done a year ago in June. So it should have been all completed by now.”

According to Mike Martino, spokesman for the county’s Department of Public Works, which is overseeing the construction, 99 percent of the work at the park has been completed: the temporary construction fence was removed in early September and the park is open to the public. All that’s left to do, according to Martino, is the storm water improvement phase of the project. “Currently, we are waiting for the aeration system installation and a few punch list items,” he said, adding that those should be completed by the middle of the month.

But area residents have become impatient. They’ve been waiting for the $850,000 renovation since 2005, when the Environmental Bond Act Committee announced that Hall’s Pond was one of 18 parks throughout Nassau County selected for rehabilitation. Construction began in June 2010 and was slated to be completed by June 2011. A difficult winter and other factors caused various delays and the construction continued into the fall, forcing the West Hempstead Kiwanis Club to cancel is annual Sept. 11 memorial ceremony, which has traditionally been held at the park. Norton did, however, manage to hold a last-minute gathering at the Sept. 11 memorial in the park on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

Still, Norton is not pleased with the way the entire project has been handled. “It appears to me that the contractor is really remiss,” she said, “or whoever it is that is responsible for making sure it was supposed to be done on time.” Upon questioning at a candidate forum held by the West Hempstead Chamber of Commerce, county Legislator Vincent Muscarella, who represents the 8th District, which includes most of West Hempstead, admitted that the contractor’s work ethic has not been up to par. Muscarella did not return the Herald’s call as of press time.

The changes that have been made thus far in the project are great, Norton said, noting in particular the benches, gazebo and landscaping. But she won’t be completely satisfied until the entire project is completed and the park is fully renovated. “We may have to put the contractor’s feet under fire,” Norton said. “Something needs to happen. … It can’t just remain in limbo.”

Norton is planning to hold a meeting with Muscarella in the coming weeks to discuss the matter.