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Civic and athletic leaders join forces to bring $16M of SeaFund money to the Massapequas On November 6, Town of Oyster Bay residents will head to the polls to select Town and County candidates. In addition, they will be asked to approve $60 million for projects under the Town's SeaFund program. If approved, the money will go to purchase open space, and to complete other environmental and capital improvements throughout the Town. While the Town has not made a final determination as to which projects it will finance through the bond, a group of Massapequa civic and athletic leaders are undertaking an effort to see that Massapequa receives $16 million of that funding. Those funds could be used to cover the cost of putting a dome on the swimming pool at Marjorie Post Park, and to build a stadium and additional playing fields here, they said. They plan to outline their proposal at the school board meeting Thursday night. Gary Slavin and John Lynott, said their plan is based on numbers from the last census that show Massapequa has more than 19,000 children and young people under the age of 18, three times more than any other hamlet in the Town. In addition, Massapequa has 27 percent of the total number of residents in the Town. Despite that, Slavin and Lynott said that Massapequa has not seen any significant funding come to the area from the two other previous bond votes. "Many people think that SeaFund money was used to build the Field of Dreams, but in fact that came from the park district, which is funded by only Massapequa residents in that district," explained Slavin. "Most of the SeaFund money has gone to other areas of the Town, and we think that it's about time Massapequa got its fair share." Town records show that SeaFund money was used to put in turf fields at John J. Burns Town Park and a roller rink at Marjorie Post Community Park, basketball courts, new fencing, playgrounds and irrigation improvements were also made in the Massapequas with funds from previous bonds. More than $23 million was spent to acquire open space in other parts of the Town however, primarily up north. Oyster Bay officials have had a policy of using half of the SeaFund money to acquire open space and the other half to make improvements, repairs etc., to town-owned properties. "We agree that a large share of this money should go to preserving open space," said Slavin. "But here in Massapequa, we are more than 90 percent developed, and there just is no open space to buy, so the Town should spend the money in other ways." Even if the plan gets over the two initial hurdles: getting the SeaFund bond passed and getting the Town of Oyster Bay to agree to the $16 million share for the Massapequa projects, it still faces one final challenge- approval from the Massapequa School District. The district would have to reach a cooperative agreement with the Town, leasing or otherwise transferring responsibility of its fields at Berner to the Town for a nominal fee. In turn, the Town would come in, build a stadium, install turf fields there and maintain them. The field and the stadium would be open to all the athletic groups in Massapequa, however the school district would have first option for use of the field for its athletic teams and events under the proposal that Slavin and Lynott expect to publicize at the school board meeting Thursday, Oct. 11. "It's important that the Town and school district get together because unlike on the north shore, there are no large open parcels here in Massapequa," said Slavin. "And even if there were, they would have to be taken off the tax rolls, which increases the tax rate and is not the most beneficial way of providing the services we are looking for to the 19,000 kids here in the Massapequas."
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