By Anthony Rifilato
At a press conference on Feb. 14, Nassau County Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin) and County Executive Tom Suozzi agreed that the ride should be located between the Cradle of Aviation Museum and the Long Island Children's Museum, in the hope that it will boost museum attendance and be enjoyed by more county residents.
Scannell said that although he had recently selected a location in Baldwin, he ultimately decided to situate the ride near the museums, where it would attract more visitors and enhance a planned expansion of the Cradle of Aviation, the Children's Museum and the Nassau County Firefighters museums.
The saga of Nunley's Carousel has taken many interesting turns, and last week's announcement came after years of heated debate over the 1912 Stein and Goldstein merry-go-round, which was purchased by the county in 1998 and has been awaiting an extensive restoration ever since.
After a proposal in 2004 by musician Billy Joel to resurrect the carousel and bring the ride to Oyster Bay, Scannell cried foul. He said that if the carousel was going to be set up anywhere, it should be in Baldwin. Scannell had been looking for a suitable location in Baldwin ever since.
At a legislative meeting last summer, however, a number of county residents contended that the carousel should be housed at the Cradle of Aviation - where it is currently in storage, awaiting restoration - to make it accessible to all county residents.
Others - mostly Baldwinites - argued that it belonged back in their community, where the carousel had been operated at Nunley's Amusement Park on Sunrise Highway from 1939 to 1995. Residents and community groups maintained that the ride would be a boon to the community and draw visitors from other towns.
Scannell initially hoped to bring the ride to the corner of Grand Avenue and Merrick Road and to make it the centerpiece of a planned Town of Hempstead redevelopment project. That plan lost steam after town officials indicated that the carousel would take up too much of the project's retail space. Scannell then looked elsewhere, including several parks in the area, but was met with community opposition. Just last month he chose a vacant, county-owned parcel next to the Baldwin Historical Society just off Grand Avenue - an ideal spot, he said.
In the end, however, Scannell said he decided on Museum Row because of the proposed Museum Row expansion, which is intended to allow for more events and more efficient marketing of the museums, which in turn will attract more visitors. "This location was the best one because it will be the centerpiece of this expansion on Museum Row," Scannell said. "What's also great is that 60,000 people a month come to Museum Row, and that was really a factor."
The cost of restoring the carousel and building a pavilion to house and operate it is just over $1.4 million, with Scannell allocating $420,000 in county capital funds and Suozzi pledging up to $1 million for the enclosure. Funding will also come from Pennies for Ponies, a money-raising campaign begun by an 8-year-old Wantagh resident, Rachel Obergh. The project has already raised over $20,000.
Scannell said it would take 18 months to restore the ride, and another year and a half to build the pavilion for it. He also said that the carousel would be located between the Cradle of Aviation and the Children's Museum, and that the site, in addition to the pavilion, would include a food court and other amenities.
Suozzi said that Museum Row's central location in the county is ideal, and would make it possible for residents throughout Nassau to enjoy the carousel. "Joe Scannell has represented his community's interests vigorously while finding common ground to make Nunley's re-opening a reality," Suozzi said.
Beth Obergh, Rachel's mother, shared those sentiments, and was perhaps the most vocal advocate of keeping the merry-go-round at the museum. Now, Obergh said, she is hopeful that more schools across the county will adopt one of the remaining 42 carousel animals by donating $2,000 - the cost of restoring a horse and a lion - especially since many were skeptical before a location had been decided on, she said.
"We've had a number of schools who said they wanted to wait until a location was found before they began donating," Obergh said. "That wait is over."
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