Volunteers keeping Hall’s Pond Park clean

Hall’s Pond Park got a face-lift once again on Oct. 16 as the West Hempstead Community Support and Civic Association organized its bi-annual cleanup of the park.

Every spring and every fall, the association joins with a number of other local organizations in picking up trash. Volunteers roved the parks with rakes, grabbers, trash bags and leaf blowers collected garbage and natural debris that buildup in the park.

Situated in a depression between the wide, busy thoroughfares of Hempstead Avenue and Nassau Boulevard, a significant amount of trash and debris can find its way into the park throughout the year. Hall’s Pond is fed by Mill River, which passes behind dense suburban blocks on its course from north to south. As it winds through West Hempstead, the river also picks up debris that needs to be cleaned.

Association organizer Santos Welti took the lead on the cleanup project.

“We had a very good morning crowd. Some people actually came before nine o’clock, which was really nice,” said Selti. “We got a nice start at the memorial down at the end over there, and then we worked out way up the park.”

Selti was pleased with the results. “It looks really good. I’m very happy with how everybody worked really, really hard.”

Association member Neill Rosenblatt explained why the regular cleanups are so important.

“The problem is that it’s not maintained,” said Rosenblatt. “The county doesn’t really maintain it. You can see the pond looks very shallow in some areas. There’s a lot of silt that builds up. You’ll see in the summer, when its dry, when there’s not a lot of water in there, you can see all the garbage. But when it’s full, you don’t see anything.”

A number of scouts and local students assisted in the cleanup, Selti explained. “Troop 240 came in. Quite a few of them came which was really nice,” she said.” A lot of West Hempstead high schoolers were here to assist us. Actually it was a very nice turnout from them, so I was very happy for that reason, and they also need the community service for college.”

Troop 240’s assistant scout leader Ron Paracha was on site all day with his family overseeing the scouts who joined in the cleanup. Paracha also took note of the West Hempstead School District’s community service requirement.

“It’s a good thing, I think, the middle school and the high school does, that they need to have a certain number of hours of community service,” said Paracha. “Of course it also goes towards their Boy Scout record.

Brothers Jason, Alex and Sam belong to troop 240 and helped Paracha in garbage collection. “It looks a lot better than when we arrived,” noted Alex. “Then again though, knowing our community, it won’t stay clean for long,” he said in jest. “Also a lot of exercise.”

“Yep, a lot of walking,” Jason chimed in.

Paracha was glad for the event. “What we’re doing is so that community members can come here and enjoy a clean park. It’s an important opportunity for these kids to come and do something for others,” he said.

Nassau County Legislator John Giuffré sponsors the bi-annual event. He spent several hours cleaning in the park as well.

Rosenblatt estimated that 90 bags worth of trash and other waste was collected. Park-goers are reminded to help keep the gathering spot clean in anticipation of the next cleanup event in spring 2023.