body / mind / fitness
April 28, 2022
Senior Healthy Living
HERALD Your Health Inside
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Vol. 29 No. 18
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_________________ BALDWIN ________________
APRIl 28 - MAY 4, 2022
Silver Lake Park nearly completed By KARINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
Neil Henry
BAlDwINItes JAY AND Maria Rawley and Neil Henry are asking for change in their town as soon as possible.
Changes must come now, neighbors demand, not later By KARINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
Leaders of the Baldwin Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Association were joined by Nassau County Legislator Debra Mulé, State Assemblywoman Judy Griffin and concerned community members at the Long Island Rail Road station last Friday morning to support the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and to encourage people to attend a Town of Hempstead town hall meeting on Tuesday, after the Herald went to press. The town announced last week that it planned to withdraw a moratorium on the initiative’s projects that would have put them off
them for a year or more, and instead take a more active role in the initiative’s environmental oversight. But Baldwinites said they didn’t want any more delays. Protesters carrying signs such as “No More Delays,” “Get It Done” and “Town of Hempstead Voters Are Watching You” spread out along the brick façade of the station. The prevailing feeling in the community is that any further delays in breaking ground on downtown improvements will put in jeopardy the $10 million in state funding already allocated for them. Residents say they have waited three decades for much-needed revitalization that would bring more housing, businesses, Continued on page 12
On April 12, engineers from Nelson and Pope Engineering gave community stakeholders a tour of Silver Lake Park, noting the progress they have made on the Silver Park Drainage Project since work began last September. Site Engineer Mike Delil said that the project was expected to be completed by July, weather permitting. Accompanying Delil on the walk-through were Nassau County Legislator Debra Mulé; Sean Sallie, the county Department of Public Works’ deputy commissioner for planning; former Chamber of Commerce President Erik Mahler; Baldwin Fire District Commissioner Douglas Wiedmann, and a handful of others. The park’s perimeter walkway is being elevated, tidal gates are being installed for backflow prevention, a storm water-treatment device is being constructed between Lofts Pond and the channel to Parsonage Creek, and a fish scaffold to Caroline’s Pond is being deepened. Menhaden, or bunker fish, use the passage for spawning in the winter months, traversing the four-inch-deep depression
cut into the concrete. Additions to the park also include a sitting wall, the removal of invasive phragmite plants, and the planting of new foliage. A construction crew broke ground last Sept. 28. The $1.75 m i l l i o n a l l o c at e d fo r t h e enhancements came from the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. The office put the goals of the project in writing in a proposal document in 2019: “to avoid to the extent possible the long- and short term adverse impacts associated with the destruction or modification of wetlands and to avoid direct or indirect support of new construction in wetlands wherever there is a practicable alternative.” The flood-prevention measures will be a great relief to the surrounding homes, which are prone to flooding and have sustained damage in the past. Nonetheless, before GOSR’s allocation of funds, resident Ding Lee told the Herald in 2018 that he doubted the project would eliminate those problems. “I have concerns that my basement will still flood,” he said. “They say [the project] would lessen the chance, but I’m still worried.” Continued on page 4