By Scott Brinton
At the northwest corner of Nassau County's Mill Pond Park in Bellmore, just south of the Sunrise Highway and west of the Wantagh Parkway, there stands one very old, one very dilapidated pump house.
The brick structure measures roughly two stories high. For years, vandals have torn it apart and coated it with graffiti. A small field's worth of broken glass surrounds it.
Unlocked, the pump house's metal doors swing freely. Inside are two uncovered manholes, one in the side of a wall and the other in the floor. Each is large enough for a person, particularly a child, to fit through. Staring into them, one sees only blackness.
The holes lead to a miles-long maze of tunnels, many six feet wide, that New York City carved out across Nassau County during early 1900s. The tunnels, which once supplied millions of gallons of fresh water from watershed properties across the South Shore to the city, run under Sunrise Highway.
Pump houses like the one at Mill Pond, which are scattered across the county and are long abandoned, were the engines that drove the intricate water-supply system that encompassed woodlands in Bellmore and Merrick, among other Nassau communities.
New York City stopped drawing water from the county during the 1950s because it was too polluted. For years, the city tried selling off its watershed properties, to no avail.
In 1981, Nassau County bought 1,750 acres of the land, which it intended to preserve as open green spaces and parks, such as Mill Pond, according to published reports from that time. The county paid $6.7 million for the properties. It then sold 800 acres of the land to New York State for $2.2 million.
A month-long Herald investigation has revealed the decayed condition into which these properties, both county and state, have fallen. They have largely become playgrounds for ATV riders and stunt bikers, as well as hangouts for teenagers who, hidden by the forests, drink and do drugs without detection.
Liability questions
The properties pose serious liability questions for the county and state, said Nassau County Legis. Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow). Perhaps the biggest liabilities are the pump houses such as that at Mill Pond.
A child could crawl into the out-of-use, underground water system via the pump house and die trying to get out, said Guy Jacob of North Valley Stream, founder of the newly formed Group for Long Island Parks and Preserves.
"A building like that is very dangerous," said Jacob, astonished that the structure was not demolished years ago. "You could disappear in that forever."
Richard Schary, the North Bellmore environmentalist who led Jacob and the Herald to Mill Pond Park, said the pump house could easily be bricked off. At the Massapequa Preserve, where Schary formed a friends group, he had a pump house sealed with a $15,000 government grant.
Yet, Mill Pond's pump house remains wide open.
Young people, particularly teenagers, though some a bit older, frequent the pump house and its environs. Around the building, they have over at least two decades developed a looping stunt bikers' course measuring anywhere from five to 10 acres.
Long ago, vandals ripped a gaping hole in the fence at the northwest corner of Mill Pond Park, a half-block south of the Sunrise.
Ever since, kids have worked to construct the bikers' course, which attracts young people from as far away as Freeport. The out-of-town bikers take the Long Island Rail Road to the Bellmore station and ride the half-mile along the Sunrise to the park.
The bikers build jumps and ramps as young people have at other locales featured in the Herald in recent weeks. They saw down trees and cut them into two-foot lengths. They construct two- to three-foot high pyramids with the small logs and cover them with dirt.
At the other locations, though, the stunt bikers' courses were far less developed and widespread. This one is long in the making and elaborately laid out.
The environmental devastation that the bikers have caused is immeasurable, Schary believes. Kids have cut down hundreds of trees and bushes to build the course. Whole sections have been cleared.
And the course only gets bigger.
Schary said the bikers "get tired of one [jump] and move on to another." During the Herald's tour, he uncovered evidence of bike jumps in the making. Teenagers are building jumps farther south, having consumed Mill Pond's entire northwest corner with the current course.
During the tour, this reporter ran into a Bellmore teenager, around 14 or 15 years old. He was performing bike stunts alone, without a helmet. The teenager said he carries a helmet with him, but doesn't like to wear it.
Lisa Schary, Richard Schary's wife and another environmentalist, said the bike jumps at Mill Pond present yet another liability for the county. If the boy were injured while stunt biking, she said, he "could lie here and die and nobody would know it."
The boy said kids have ridden stunt bikes at this spot for more than 20 years. His stepfather, now age 32, helped build the course as a teenager and put his stepson onto the property, the boy said.
The teenager said he doesn't think about how stunt biking damages the environment. Of the Mill Pond course, he said, "I didn't build it. I just ride it."
Where hope lies
To the north of Mill Pond Park lies Twin Lakes Nature Preserve, which the Town of Hempstead leases from New York State. Schary believes it represents a model of nature conservancy that could be repeated at similar green spaces throughout the area.
The formula for success is simple, but requires commitment and vigilance, Schary said.
The town has fully fenced in the Wantagh property. People are permitted to fish and hike inside the preserve. No other activities are allowed. Gates to the property are small, roughly two feet wide, which prevents ATVers from getting in, but permits entry for pedestrians.
Signs at the preserve's entrance state clearly that the town is responsible for the property and list which activities are allowed and which are prohibited there. A phone number to report violations is found in bold letters on the signs as well.
The town regularly cleans the property of trash and repairs damage, Schary said.
Several agencies provide enforcement at the preserve, including Nassau County police; Town of Hempstead bay constables, who report to the town's Department of Conservation and Waterways; and state Department of Environmental Conservation police, who ensure fishing regulations are maintained. The bay constables, Schary noted, are authorized to enter the property armed in case criminal activities are detected.
And, Schary said, the various agencies coordinate their enforcement efforts.
Farther north behind the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter on Beltagh Avenue in Wantagh sits a town general-use property. It's a woodland that measures about 50 acres, with a dried-out streambed running down its center. Hempstead could build on it or sell it, but so far the town has kept it as a green space.
A year ago, the property was a wreck, having fallen prey to vandals. Many were teenagers who built elaborate, plywood forts and bike jumps, as well as sprayed graffiti on trees.
Schary noted, however, that teenagers weren't the only ones destroying the forest. Contractors would regularly dump their waste there to avoid fees at the Town of Hempstead garbage transfer station in Merrick.
With help from Legis. Gonsalves, Schary successfully lobbied the town to install gates at key access points into the property. Overnight, contractors stopped dumping in the woodland because they simply couldn't get into it.
The town and Schary also destroyed the forts and bike jumps. Schary now tours the property regularly, looking for signs of vandalism, which he immediately reports to Hempstead officials.
The nearly pristine forest now serves as a walking/bicycling route for local residents on their way to the Wantagh Parkway bikeway.
Vicki Rosenberg, president of the Wantagh-Seaford Homeowners Association, said, "It's all about stewardship."
Schary supports efforts to form friends groups to protect local woodlands, such as that undertaken recently by Robert Young in Merrick (see Merrick Herald online at www.liherald.com., "Cleanup under way," April 2002). Friends groups provide the stewardship needed to preserve area green spaces, he believes.
At the same time, Jacob said established outdoor groups, such as the Sierra Club with 6,000 members Island-wide and the Nassau County Hiking and Outdoor Club with 600 members, could also adopt properties, such as the parkway woodlands surrounding the Bellmores and Merricks. He formed the Group for Long Island Parks and Preserves to coordinate conservation efforts among such organizations.
"Why not use existing groups to take stewardship?" Jacob said, noting that numerous Sierra and Hiking and Outdoor club members live and work in central Nassau.
Cleanup updates
Babylon Turnpike woodland
Following the Herald's ongoing series examining parkway woodlands, New York State has agreed to clean up a woodland it owns in Merrick off Babylon Turnpike. The Herald first reported on the roughly 75-acre property in the April 18 edition, "Parkway wasteland."
State Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) acted quickly following publication of that first article, calling upon the state Transportation and Parks departments and Troopers to get together and develop cleanup plans.
Michael Arens, the senator's chief of staff, met this last Monday with 14 representatives from Transportation, Parks, state Police, state Parks Police and Freeport Police. (The property in question extends into the Village of Freeport.)
The state is to develop an action plan for the property over the next two weeks and expedite a cleanup there. State officials also wish to meet with Nassau County and Town of Hempstead representatives to coordinate the effort. And they are seeking a meeting with local civic leaders to recruit volunteers to help maintain the property long-term.
Muellener Pond
Also following the Herald's parkway series, Nassau County Legis. Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) plans to call on the county Public Works Department to investigate Muellener Pond on the North Merrick-East Meadow border. After more than a decade of neglect and abuse, the historic pond has fallen into a terrible state. Public Works, she said, must develop any cleanup plans for the property.
