Cleanup needed at North Woodmere Park

Adam Brozik recalls seeing a couple of toys sitting among piles of debris on the grounds of North Woodmere Park during a photography excursion he made there last October. Fast forward to April of this year, and both items were still there.
Refuse continues to collect on the outer edges of Hook Creek in North Woodmere Park, a Nassau County facility. Brozik said he believes the debris is left behind mostly by park patrons, but some of it is the remnants of Hurricane Sandy. He has taken it upon himself to volunteer for the county to battle this recurring problem and clean up the park, and he would also like the county to pay more attention to gathering and disposing of the residual debris that washes ashore.
“I saw this toy dinosaur and a volleyball sitting there, and I was curious,” Brozik said. “I wondered how long each of them would stay there before anyone noticed they didn’t belong to anyone and needed to be either picked up or disposed of by the park’s maintenance staff.” He eventually retrieved and kept the dinosaur, and threw away the volleyball.
Mary Studdert, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Public Works, said she believes the debris washing up along Hook Creek is left over from Sandy, and not from park users, since the park is cleaned every day. “Litter is routinely removed from the shoreline, and parks maintenance staff makes every effort to keep it clean daily,” she said. “There are times when large items wash up on the shoreline, either from high tides or from storms. As far as keeping the park clean, the garbage and litter is picked up daily — in the morning. This is a separate issue than removing debris from the shoreline.”
Studdert added that in the first week of July, there were unusually high tides, or moon tides, which resulted in debris settling along the shoreline at low tide. County workers removed whatever they found, she said.

While cleaning up the debris, Brozik has also noticed that some of the park’s lights need repair. “With the lights at the park, they need to take time to weld and put those boxes in the ground — ones that work,” he said. “I know this park was designed in the 1950s, and I like that about it. If maintained properly, this retro design could be updated and kept fresh for much longer.”
Studdert said that there had been no recent requests from the park to fix any lights. “Lights in parking lot and pathways are working properly,” she said. “If bulbs blow out, a work order is issued and they are replaced.” She said that maintaining the park after it closes at night is not an issue, since the buildings are locked and the county’s public safety officers patrol the facility.
Brozik is continuing his cleanup efforts, and has noticed a marked difference between where he has picked up trash and places where the debris collects. “The spots that I have cleaned really well are staying mostly unmolested two to three weeks later,” he said. “I wouldn’t disagree with anyone who thinks things look well-kept at the park, from a distance, at least. It may very well take community involvement and volunteerism to really get this dealt with, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.”