Our Views: Getting heat for doing right thing

The Island Now

Give Floral Park officials credit for sticking to their guns and allowing some New Hyde Park residents impacted by the renovation of the Clinton G. Martin pool access to the Floral Park pool in the face of heated opposition of some village residents.

The decision by the village to offer 40 memberships to New Hyde Park families as well as local businesses for the one year that Clinton Martin is closed sets an example that would serve us well if others followed.

It was also a decision that, as Floral Park Mayor Dominick Longobardi said, is consistent with the village’s “neighbors helping neighbors mantra.”

Not everyone agreed.

Nadia Holubnyczyj-Ortiz, president of the Hillcrest Civic Association, presented a petition with more than 850 signatures calling for trustees to rescind the offer.

Holubnyczyj-Ortiz said residents were upset not just that their pool, which underwent a $6.7 million renovation in 2015, would lose its exclusivity and possibly exacerbate an overcrowding problem, but also that the board made the decision without consulting them.

She also said at an earlier meeting that residents believed that admitting outsiders would make them feel less secure.

This did not sit well with residents of New Hyde Park.

“I found it extremely offensive saying that letting ‘outsiders’ in would make people feel less safe. Seriously,” New Hyde Park resident Dorren Caliendo wrote in a letter.

Holubnyczyj-Ortiz later backtracked from her claim that concerns about “outsiders” played a role in the residents’ opposition. She said the residents’ main concern was the village’s lack of transparency, which Longobardi said had some merit.

But let’s be honest. Holubnyczyj-Ortiz and other Floral Park residents saying they opposed “outsiders” would not place them outside the mainstream.

Park district and village pools available only to residents of a village or park district are the rule rather than the exception in North Hempstead.

The Park at East Hills is open to only residents of East Hills and even other residents of Roslyn cannot enter — a fact that is credited with boosting property values in the village.

Same with the Great Neck Park District. Residents of six of Great Neck’s villages are members but the villages of Great Neck Estates, Lake Success and Saddle Rock, as well as the hamlets of Harbor Hills and University Gardens, are not.

But before taking up a collection for residents of the Great Neck villages outside the Great Neck Park District, keep in mind that Saddle Rock and Great Neck Estates have their own pools, which sit along Little Neck Bay. And that Lake Success has its own golf course as well as, you guessed it, its own lake.

The Floral Park pool is actually the most expensive alternative for Clinton Martin Park users at a cost of $695 — compared to $524 for a family pool membership for residents.

Other options include a pass to four North Hempstead pools for $248; the Town of Hempstead’s Echo Park Pool for $250; and Nassau County’s Christopher Morley Park for $250.

The only other village to offer memberships to “outsiders” is Williston Park, where a pool membership for New Hyde Park families costs $435.

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said the town, which operates Clinton Martin pool, had sought to get pool users as many alternatives as possible.

Apparently, Floral Park residents were not alone in their concerns.

And even New Hyde Park residents found it hard to argue with them.

Bill Cutrone, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association in North New Hyde Park, said he thought it’s “not very kind” of Floral Park residents to oppose offering the extra memberships, considering the Clinton G. Martin pool will only be closed one year.

But, he said, he understands where they were coming from.

“If it were in reverse, I think that the people in Clinton G. Martin would be upset that their pool was going to be overtaken with a lot of outsiders,” Cutrone said.

Some much for neighbors helping neighbors.

In North Hempstead, it appears that for many, home values come first.

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