By Scott Brinton
Elected leaders, mostly Town Council members, some of whom won office only last year, and a few New York State officials soaked up the glory surrounding the preserve's opening ceremony. They sat as honored guests on the front dais. Many of their names appeared in the day's program.
Meanwhile, lifelong Merrick resident Jay Pitti, 67, sat in the audience, unassumingly, as if he were just another invited guest. His name was left off the program. Town Supervisor Richard Guardino asked him to stand briefly. He did, along with a handful of other Merrick residents who sought to have the park built. Applause followed. Photographs were shot. The residents, including Mr. Pitti, sat back down while the elected leaders continued making speeches.
One would hardly have known that, if not for Mr. Pitti, the Levy Preserve might well be nothing more than another capped landfill, a grassy, 125-foot-tall hill like the one found off the water in Oceanside. Instead, the former garbage dump is today a crown jewel of the Town's parks system, a nature preserve that protects Merrick's native flora and fauna. It is, frankly, the best thing to happen to Merrick in a long time. Mr. Pitti should get a lion's share of the credit for this amazing undertaking. That is why the Merrick Herald names him its Person of the Year 2000.
Mr. Pitti, thank you for your years of service to this community. You deserve many more accolades (hint, hint, Town of Hempstead, Nassau County and New York State elected officials).
For 16 years, Jay Pitti fought behind the scenes to have the Levy Preserve built. In 1986, he formed the Overlook Park Sanctuary and Preserve Committee, a group of up to 20 local residents, and has served as its chairman ever since. Through the years, the committee lobbied the town to build the park. Then, it oversaw planning for the preserve, making sure it remained a nature sanctuary. To this day, the OPAS committee stays active in developing educational programs for children at the park.
Mr. Pitti, who holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and business and a master's in education, served two years in the military during the Korean War. From 1959 to 1966, he worked as a teacher at Lakeside Elementary School in Merrick. (One former student is Richard Kessel, Long Island Power Authority chairman.) During that time, Mr. Pitti also started his own landscaping/garden center business on the side. He began the enterprise next to his father's grocery on Merrick Avenue, just south of the Camp Avenue School. He later went into school-textbook sales, acting as Random House's Long Island representative, all the while maintaining his business nights and weekends.
When his father retired in 1979, Mr. Pitti took over the grocery and converted it into one large garden center. He said he never fought for the preserve in order to attract customers to his business. In fact, he asked that its name not be mentioned in this article. (We will anyway - Merrick House and Garden.)
Mr. Pitti battled for the preserve to restore at least a small part of the Merrick that was lost with suburbanization - its natural side, he said.
Mr. Pitti grew up during the 1930's and 40's when Merrick was largely field and stream, with trees tall enough for a kid to climb and look out for miles. And that is exactly what Mr. Pitti did so many times as a child. He grew to love the views from above the tree line.
As a landscaper, he often dumped garden debris at the Merrick landfill, which opened in 1950 and closed in 1984. His views from the landfill became increasingly better over the years as trash was piled higher and higher, earning the dump its title of Mount Merrick.
He learned that the landfill was to close in the weeks before it shut down for good. One day during that time, he dropped off a load at the top of the landfill, which measured well above 100 feet high. He regretted that he would soon lose his landfill view (on a clear day, New York City was, and still is, visible). He got halfway down the landfill in his truck, and the idea for an overlook park at the former dump struck him.
In developing his park idea, he worked with Jim Heil, then the Town of Hempstead's sanitation commissioner and a former Department of Environmental Conservation official. The OPAS Committee formed two years later. The rest is history.
Today, when Mr. Pitti climbs atop Mount Merrick and gazes east and north onto the community he has always called home, he sees the past. "When I look at Shore Drive and Clubhouse Road, I go back to the 1930's when it was marshland," he said.
"We have deified technology to the point where technology gets what it wants at all costs. We have forgotten that our true frame of reference is nature."
Atop the preserve, "Merrick disappears. Freeport disappears. Now, you see the greater dimension, the planet, nature. Hopefully, people will be able to visit this site and enjoy nature, at its visual best, and hopefully contemplate the need to respect that nature," said Mr. Pitti.
"We have the capacity to rectify our sins and keep the planet in good shape, if only we can restrain our destructive tendencies. There is no reason we cannot have commerce and ecology. They should be working in harmony."
Mr. Pitti said that his moment of validation for all his years of hard work in developing the park came recently when he discovered a flock of ducks and swans swimming and playing in the pond at the top of the preserve. He thought then, "Nature has endorsed [the park]."
Yes, indeed, it has. So do we. Mr. Pitti, congratulations.
Again, thank you.
