L&M Publications
Merrick Life • Bellmore Life • Freeport-Baldwin Leader • Wantagh-Seaford Citizen

Residents ringing Smith Pond learned last week they will have to wait a bit longer to see the pond dredged of sediment and plants – causing stagnation and insect infestations – because of delays in both bidding contracts and finding a suitable place to dry the dredged silt.

Meanwhile, residents off of Bellmore Avenue, between Sunrise Highway and Merrick Road, also learned at last week’s public works meeting held by county Legislator David Denenberg that the road is being prepared for resurfacing only, and that next year engineers will redesign and rebuild the road to include curbs, new drainage and some new sidewalks. 

Brian Schneider, hydrogeologist for the Nassau County’s Department of Public Works was the evening’s most anticipated guest. He told attendees that while plans had been approved for Smith Pond’s dredging of 6,000 cubic yards of sediment that had built up since 1996 – when 11,000 cubic yards were last dredged from the pond – bidding had been delayed and would finally get underway beginning July 27.

He added that he expected the bidding to last four months. But he cautioned there was no guarantee the work would begin in November once the contractor was named. He said the contractor would have to determine whether it could dredge 6,000 cubic yards before full winter set in. 

For Jodi May, it remains an unbearable wait. Living on Smith Pond for 38 years, on the northernmost end of  pond where one of the streams feeds in, she told Bellmore Life that “There is a massive bug problem. It’s from the aquatic plants that are feeding the insects...I can’t spend five minutes outside in my backyard. The mosquitoes, the gnats, the bugs [are] horrendous,” said Ms. May. 

The problem started over the last  10 years, according to Ms. May, and has become progressively worse. 

“[The legislators are] saying now that we’re going to have to wait at least another summer before anything gets done. [It’s] unbearable,” she concluded. 

A resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “Right now [the lake] seems hopeless and polluted...It looks and smells like a sewer. It’s a shame.”

Mr. Schneider noted that among the  the goals of the Smith Pond revitalization is to rid the pond of invasive vegetation. However, those plants die off in the winter, he said, and would be easier to find and kill once they re-emerge in the spring.  

He said a suitable spot to place geodisks had finally been found in which to drain water from the sediment  back into the pond. Machines to dredge the two arms of the pond will pump sediment into the disks, which are tremendous  bags constructed of environmentally sound material, to allow water to seep out and back into the pond. The dredged sediment, he said, would be hauled off in trucks.

New technology
But most impressive in his remarks was a new technology he said will be implemented within the Smith Pond watershed.

The county is currently placing 850 new catchbasins – at a cost of $1.85 million from the county’s Environmental Bond Act –  into existing sewers, with the help of the Town of Hempstead, at the rate of 6-8 per day. These new installments will catch not only the floatables but also the sediment from entering the water stream,  he said.

He added that the catchbasins will also include “biological inoculents,”  or nutrient booms to capture both nitrogen and phosphorus from streetwater runoff.

He told the audience that both nitrogen and phosphorus were the nutrients responsible for the explosive growth of vegetation around the pond – as well as in it.

“We don’t know how well this technology will work at capturing those nutrients,” he said, adding that only after the pond has been dredged and tests done monthly for several months could it be determined if the new biological inoculents are working to keep the nutrients out. But, he added, “I’m confident that we’re going to make a significant impact [with the catchbasin inserts].” 

He said he hoped residents would feel inclined and proactive in calling the town or county whenever they saw the  catchbasins filled up with floatables and sediments, to have them removed to keep the catchbasins in good working order.  “The nutrient boom will also be replaceable,” Mr. Schneider said.

Another resident added, “It is our responsibility to keep [the lake] beautiful.”

Bellmore Avenue
Also under the spotlight at the meeting was Bellmore Avenue resurfacing. Already, crews have closed the road at certain times and are “raising the municipal castings” (manholes) in anticipation of new surfacing that will take place within weeks. 

“This is part of the $2 million 2009 capital plan” for Bellmore Avenue, explained Legislator Denenberg.  He said that, because of delays, only a resurfacing will take place this year. “It’s not an ideal situation to resurface a road before rehabilitating it,” he continued, but the county had “no choice.”

He said winter had devastated the road throughout the years to where it needed to be resurfaced; otherwise the county could face liability for the road’s mounting surface problems. Mr. Denenberg said that in 2011 the road would undergo a major rehabilitation by adding new curbs, drainage, sidewalks and pitch.

He noted that the Bellmore Avenue resurfacing was similar to a resurfacing taking place at Wantagh Avenue, between Sunrise Highway and Merrick Road. 

While funds to resurface Wantagh Avenue came from 2009’s general budget – part of the capitalization budget, according to the county Department of Public Works, an extra $500,000 was amended to the Wantagh Avenue budget to add “unspecified” items, said Mr. Denenberg.

Legislator Dennis Dunne told Bellmore Life he talked with several residents and store owners and got the $500,000 for new road improvements, such as curbs. These funds are not part of the resurfacing budget. Legislator Denenberg also told the audience that Merrick Road, which is undergoing a beautification from Eastern Avenue west to Centre Avenue, will get 15 new trees to replace the 14 Bradford pear trees that were removed recently.

“The pear trees were high-rooted trees that tore up the sidewalks of businesses in front of them.” He said the new trees would be deep-rooted trees that wouldn’t tear up the new brick pavers that were being put in to beautify Merrick Road.

- Lauren Urban also contributed to this story.         

By Doug Finlay

Doug Finlay is the assistant editor for Bellmore Life newspaper. He is also an award-winning writer for L&M Publications.