By JOSEPH KELLARD
Over the past five years, Jacobs has relentlessly asked the town to upgrade both its beach, which she said has been nonfunctional for swimming during her 25-year residency in Harbor Isle, and its surrounding park area. The beach in question is on a bay off of Hog Island Channel, where the sand has eroded and become mucky.
"There's 20-foot lead in into the water and you can't get into the bay without going through this muck and bird droppings and rocks," said Jacobs, a community activist who is joined by several neighbors in her efforts.
Gene Murtagh, who has lived across the street from the beach for 30 years, recalled, "Back when I first moved here, the beach thrived with swimmers. The Harbor Isle Civic Association owned the beach before it sold it to the town."
Both Jacobs and Murtagh have no realistic expectations that the town could do much about the beach, since these conditions are an issue throughout Long Island. But Jacob's contends that the town has let the issue of doing something about the beach die. "...No one has looked into making access to the water feasible in some way," she claimed. "Make it into a fishing pier or something."
A spokesperson for the Town of Hempstead, Susan Trenkle, speaking on behalf of Reid Berglind, executive assistant at the Town of Hempstead, said that the town is exploring different ways to expand the use of the beach, but that "there's not a whole lot we can do as far as the muck goes. That is the biological nature of the bay beaches in general. It's a different kind of bottom from ocean beaches because there's no wave evacuation, and we can't do too much about that. Also, the geese and the ducks add to that."
The town in recent years, however, has taken steps to upgrade the beach's park area, adding two new gazebos, replacing the former rusted metal playground equipment with modern plastic materials, and installing new fencing around the play area.
"This is a beach and park that is important to the supervisor and the Councilman and they have asked the parks department to explore different avenues," Trenkle said. "As of right now, this is what they have."
But Jacobs and other Harbor Isle residents believe there are still several areas of the park the town should address. For example, the two existing picnic benches have rusted legs and weathered, warped wooden surfaces, and the concrete ground near the play area is uneven.
"The recessed concrete is a hazard to children who play here," Murtagh said. "They really should put new concrete or blacktop down."
"I think it should be a safer place to play," said Patricia Price, who said her husband, Jay, has written the town asking to install basketball backboards and hoops.
"We keep our houses nice here in Harbor Isle, and some of us expand on them to make them better," said another resident, Karen. "And we pay taxes, so why can't the town spend a little money and make this park better?"
Amy Mininni believes a sprinkler system for children would be an ideal new feature. "Why should I have to walk across town and across Austin Boulevard to Shell Creek park, when they can fix this park right her
in my neighborhood?" she asked rhetorically.
Jacobs also believes the vegetation in the park could be improved, pointing, in part, to stumps where trees were chopped down but never replaced and bushes she contends are dying.
"My understanding is that we received complaints that the vegetation there was dead," Trenkle said. "And when we went down there it was not dead. It's alive. It may not be what [Jacobs] wants to see there. But there are plantings there and they are alive."
Jacobs' efforts to get the town to refurbish the beach and park began in August 2000. She wrote to then supervisor Richard Guardino, and the parks department replied that it had no plans for the park and would inform her when it did, Jacobs claimed. But she wouldn't let it go at that. She took the issue to Councilman Anthony Santino, who did visit that beach and said that it could be a gem, according to Jacobs.
When Murray was named supervisor in early 2003, Jacobs claimed she soon contacted her about the beach, and she visited it that October. Murray mailed out a questionnaire to the residents of Harbor Isle to get input as to what features they may want at the beach and park. Yet Mininni claimed she and a number of other residents never received the questionnaire. Now Jacobs said she hasn't heard from the town about the beach since November 2004.
"There are many parks in the town's park system, and this one is not being ignored or being put by the wayside," Trenkle vowed. "There is research involved about what can be done in the area, as far as the manpower to do anything. It may not be on the time table that [Jacobs] would like, but we are exploring it and are trying to work with the community."
Trenkle added that the town will have more information about possible upgrades at Harbor Isle Beach in "the near future." But Jacobs remains highly skeptical.
"I think it's a commentary on government, on their arrogance that they don't think it matters enough that they are neither responsive nor responsible," Jacobs said. "I take their whole way of how they have handled their dealings with me as typical of their just poking their finger in the eyes of the public. If it's not a photo-op or a matter of patting themselves on the back, then they're not interested."
Comments about this story? Dmiller@liherald.com or
(516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
