Deborah Gula enjoys taking photos of birds at Halls Pond Park, at 671 Nassau Blvd. — in West Hempstead — but the egrets, double-crested cormorants and red-tailed hawks that she has so often photographed in the past seem to have suddenly disappeared.
Gula, 63, who lives three blocks from the park, also has noticed that the condition of the pond has deteriorated.
Garbage can be seen floating on the edges of the pond, branches from fallen trees stick out of the surface, and the island in the middle, which is supposed to provide sanctuary for birds to land on, is littered with debris.
Upset with the conditions, Gula called Nassau County to see if anything could be done to improve them. When she didn’t receive a response, Gula posted her complaints in a community Facebook group.
She discovered that many others held similar concerns, with Gula’s posts racking up more than 100 comments, and other community members posting their own experiences with the county.
“A lot of people are not happy with the condition of this pond,” Gula said.
“My neighbors are concerned that this park is falling apart,” Sergey Kadinsky, author of “Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide,” said.
“There’s not enough water flowing into the pond,” Kadinsky, who lives a block from the park, added. “Because there’s not enough water flowing into the pond, the pond needs aeration, there should be some way to circulate the water so it does not become stagnant.”
He suggested replacing the metal barriers around the pond with rocks to create a more natural appeal for local wildlife. Kadinsky said he supports the bird sanctuary island in the pond but believes it needs to be better maintained.
“I would like to see more community input,” he said. “When the county makes a decision to update or reconstruct a park, there has to be more meetings with the community.”
Many neighbors also have expressed issues with the park’s playground, claiming that the flooring material is in disrepair and has become a tripping hazard. They also said that the play space needs shade, and the public restrooms require easier access.
“There have been complaints for years about the park, the feeding of the birds, the dredging or non-dredging of the pond, the trash in the pond,” Maureen Mahoney, president of the West Hempstead Community Support Association, said. “We have tried to address with the county the addition of garbage cans, but there’s still trash from other properties that blow into the pond area.”
Neal Rosenblatt, an association board member who chairs quality of life concerns, said that in April he met with Nassau County Legislator William Gaylor and Deputy Parks Commissioner Mike D’Ambrosio, following up on a meeting the previous year.
“We spent an hour and a half walking through the entire Halls’ property and the adjacent wooded county property, and went over a list of issues that we had seen and needed addressed,” he said.
Rosenblatt shared that while some issues still needed to be addressed, many were resolved.
“We’ve been working on the park for two years now,” Gaylor, who represents District 14, which includes Lynbrook, Malverne, North Lynbrook, East Rockaway, West Hempstead, Lakeview, and parts of Valley Stream and Oceanside, said. “This is not a new project, this is ongoing.”
Gaylor has been working with the association to complete projects around the park, including clearing trees, repairing walkways, cleaning catch basins, maintaining the gazebo and replacing lighting.
Gaylor explained that his office has requested funding to upgrade or replace the gazebo, renovate the playground area, replace the roof at the auxiliary police building and repair the Police Athletic League’s hockey rink.
The association has continuously worked with local legislators, as well as the parks department, to address issues at the park, holding annual clean-ups to help spruce up the grounds.
“It is not the community’s responsibility to clean up a park that Nassau County is supposed to be taking care of, but sometimes we have to step in as good citizens and beautify our community on our own,” Mahoney said.
Rosenblatt shared that a catch basin has been installed to prevent trash from flowing into the pond during heavy rain and flooding. While the county cleans the basin regularly, there’s no guarantee all of the debris will be captured.
“The pond is part of an entire system,” Rosenblatt said. “It’s not just where some rain water goes into Halls Pond and stays there, it continues under Hempstead Avenue, through Lakeview and Malverne, behind Tanglewood Preserve, and it just keeps going until it drains out into the waterways.”
Gaylor said, “For all county parks, there are ongoing programs to maintain all the tributaries, streams, that feed into these lakes and ponds, from the North Shore to the South Shore. Every time there’s significant amounts of rain, more stuff is pushed down through the streams, and they end up in the catch basins and the parks themselves. So we’re always looking at how to best keep things clean.”
Moshe Hill, who lives near the park, said the county comes around three times a week to pick up garbage and once a week to mow the grass. “They do a great job,” he said. “But during the summer, when it’s hot and muggy, sometimes garbage gets accumulated at the corners of the pond.”
Hill, a candidate for the County Legislature’s Fifth District covering West Hempstead, Franklin Square, Hempstead and Uniondale, is challenging incumbent Olena Nicks for the seat.
Hill said he reached out to parks department officials, who responded that they would attend to issues at the park on Monday, including removing debris and cleaning the sides of the pond. “It’s our park, we do what we can to take care of it,” Hill said. “I would love to see us continue to take care of it and the county to continue to improve upon it.”
On July 21, the Herald observed the Department of Public Works use an eco-harvester at Halls Pond to clean up silt and other debris that has gathered in the pond.
“Hall’s Pond is a man-made feature with a rubber membrane at the bottom, making it impermeable,” Darcy Belyea, Nassau County Commissioner of Parks told the Herald in a statement. “This design results in no natural drainage and leads to sediment accumulation. This accumulation disrupts water flow, contributing to debris and trash build-up. To address this, we periodically need to move the sediment using machinery, which is only possible when water levels are low.”
An eco-harvester is a minimally invasive method for cleaning waterways as it uses a conveyor system to pull weeds and debris from the water.
“Currently, we are not at the stage where dredging is necessary, but our Department of Public Works is working this week to break up the sand bars using a harvester to remove debris, including dead foliage and sediment, from the pond’s base,” Belyea said. “Additionally, our Parks Department is actively working to remove as much trash and debris as possible from the shoreline.”
“This solution has to be comprehensive rather than piecemeal,” Kadinsky said. “That means reconstructing the entire park with a master plan, the playground, the pond, the roller skating rink. The entirety of the park should be put under consideration for an update.”
The West Hempstead Community Support Association will be holding a meeting on July 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 233 Woodlawn Rd. Discussion about Halls Pond Park will be included in the agenda.
“We pay taxes for county parks,” Gula said. “I realize Hall’s Pond is not a source of revenue for the county, but it’s a county park. They need to take care of it. It needs to be cleaned.”
