By:Carrie James
After what neighboring residents said was a five-month fight, Salisbury Sump 51 will be perpetually preserved as open space and a poster child for the county legislature's goal to save more undeveloped land throughout Nassau.
The Nassau County Legislature unanimously passed two pieces of legislation on July 30 to help preserve open space within the county. The first amended the Nassau County Preservation Law of 2001 to require that the newly formed Nassau County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee participate in the review of any proposal for the sale of county-owned land. The second preserved in perpetuity the county-owned Sump 51 along Carman Avenue in Salisbury. This land is one of the last remaining parcels of the original terminal morain glacial ridge more commonly known as the Hempstead Plains.
"We're very happy," said Lorri Bauer, who along with neighbor Joy MacLeod, led a five-month campaign to save the environmentally significant and sensitive 30-acre property from development. "It's good news and I'm glad it's coming to an end. We asked them to have it stated in the law that it's part of the original terminal morain glacial ridge. We felt that it would help secure it's preservation for years to come."
The residents' fight, Bauer said, began at least five months ago when they learned that Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta's office had proposed the property be put up for sale and developed. After hearing about the sale, Bauer and MacLeod contacted Leg. Dennis Dunne (R-Levittown) to find out more information and gain his support to stop any sale and development.
In early June, Dunne and Leg. Norma Gonsalves, along with other legislators, introduced the bill that recently passed that would preserve the essential storm basin and surrounding land.
"We're hoping that the legislation will prevent the sale of the property and all development of the property," Dunne had said at the time. "It's a real precious part of Nassau County and I'm going to fight to keep it that way."
Recently, Dunne and Gonsalves reaffirmed their position on the bill, Gonsalves even submitting several photographs of the property to convince legislators to pass it.
"I think that the photos I had was a reason the vote was unanimous," Gonsalves said. "I think the fact that this is a model for other pieces of land in the county to be preserved because of its character. I think that also was a selling point."
"It was a long hard fight, but we won," Dunne agreed. "It took a lot of convincing, but it was a fight worth fighting."
Dunne said a snag in the initial discussions could have been the property's value, which was estimated at $5 million. Also, the county had received a bid of $10 million for the property and preserving the land would lead to giving up needed money, something Dunne said he felt some legislators had to really struggle with. In the end though, everyone came together on the legislation.
While Gonsalves said she plans to approach the newly formed open space and parks advisory committee about what will happen next at Salisbury Sump, Dunne and Bauer both said the best course of action is to clean it up and leave it alone.
Along with a cleaup, Bauer said there needs to be some sort of monitoring of the land because of a small number of problems with trespassing and vandalism. Garbage has been thrown over the fencing and people have cut into the fencing to gain admittance. Problems have decreased in the past few years, but there are still incidents, she said.
"We are going to try to work with the Department of Public Works to fix the holes in the fencing and ask them to put better locks on the gates," Bauer said. "We may want them to maybe put a sign up that says 'no trespassing, this is permanently preserved as environmentally sensitive. I'm hoping if we put it on a sign that them maybe it might stop some of them."
She added that police patrolling and neighborhood watches would be needed to help keep the property safe, including the number of indigenous plant and animal species located there.
As for the future, the amendment bringing the Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee into all proposed land sale reviews would insure that Nassau County will have at least some open space left.
"Anything that goes up for sale needs to go for review with this committee," Bauer said, adding that there isn't that much open space in the county and what's left should be preserved, especially storm basin property.
