• ONE YEAR LATER •
Yes, it's been one year since the county tried to push through their ill-conceived plan to consolidate the sewage from Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach into the Bay Park plant.
But what has changed since then? The simple answer is nothing. Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach are still processing their own communities sewage. Bay Park is still dumping over 60 million gallons (and then some) of treated effluent into Reynolds Channel every day. The plant still stinks and sends it's fetid odor wafting throughout the community every now and then. The Hewlett Point beach still closes whenever there is a heavy rainstorm because of high bacteria levels in the water. Everything remains unchanged.
But . . .
In truth, many changes were made since January 2008. The people of Bay Park, East Rockaway and the surrounding communities prevented bad changes from happening by standing up to big government as they tried to impose their will upon the very people they were elected to represent and serve.
The hundreds of community residents who showed up at the raucous community rally last March at the plant or the folks that packed Tom Suozzi's community forum at the high school surely helped to change the fate of the county's ill-conceived consolidation plan.
Perhaps the biggest change was to those members of the Green Bay Parkers. This group of citizens stepped out of the role of their daily lives and stood up to the county to adamantly say NO on behalf of their community. Through endless hours of sitting through legislative meetings, tirelessly collecting thousands of signatures for petitions, sitting in meeting after meeting with various environmental groups, and diligently keeping the community informed of the county's consolidation plan, these "little guys" stood toe to toe with the county to prove that sometimes, if you fight hard enough, people still have the power to change things.
I'm almost certain the county will once again pursue pushing this consolidation plan upon us after packaging it differently to make it seem more palatable. But unless County Executive Tom Suozzi, Legislator Jeff Toback and DPW Commissioner Ray Ribiero can make some realistic, positive changes to their consolidation plan for South West Nassau County that does more than move crap from one part of the bay to another, then the best change for the people of Bay Park, East Rockaway and the surrounding communities would be no change at all.
And speaking of change, both County Executive Suozzi and Legislator Toback are up for re-election this November. Let's remember to give them all the support that they've been gracious enough to bestow upon us.
Good riddance.
