Villages seek residents help for Willow Pond

The villages of Hewlett Harbor and Hewlett Bay Park are seeking to dredge Willow Pond and officials are calling on residents to assist in the grant researching and writing process.

The pond, which Hewlett Harbor Deputy Mayor Len Oppenheimer called the, “4.5-acre puddle,” has become very shallow due the buildup of debris, which includes leaves and soil settling in the water.

Currently, Schenks Circle, the north end of Willow Pond, about 40 to 60 feet wide and 300 feet long, is being dredged to remove run off, sediment and debris. The main goal of what is the Willow Pond Improvement Project, a $452,000 restoration paid for by two Nassau County Environmental Bond Act grants, one for $202,000 that was attained in 2004 and another for $150,000 in 2006 as well as a $100,000 contribution from the Town of Hempstead, is to restore the pond’s natural freshwater habitat.

“That pond has become stagnate,” said Jeff Stahl, president of the Pond Connection, a pond and lake management services company based out of Newton, Conn. “In the summer months it’s not able to support fish species because the water temperature is too warm and leads to oxygen depletion. Right now it’s to the point where it’s almost unmanageable.”

Hewlett Harbor Mayor Mark Weiss, Oppenheimer and Hewlett Bay Park residents Violet and James McKeon met with Stahl a month ago, to discuss the best option for cleaning up Willow Pond.

Oppenheimer, who serves as the commissioner of the Willow Pond Commission, an organization jointly formed by both Hewlett Harbor and Hewlett Bay Park residents, sent a letter to residents and commission members to inform them about the pond’s progress. “Ponds can, in time, die off as part of their natural cycle,” he said. “I would say storm water containing debris draining into a pond is anything but natural however. That said, human intervention could be applied in the form of dredging, education, and other means of remediation efforts to reverse the effects.”

Dredging is a very costly and timely endeavor, according to Stahl. Oppenheimer anticipates dredging to cost between $600,000 and $900,000 for Willow Pond, depending on how much dredging they decide to do. “There are two types of dredging: mechanical which involves draining the pond completely and putting machinery in it and hydro-dredging, and with that particular pond, you couldn’t get the dredging equipment in there because it’s so shallow,” Stahl said. “The pond would be completely drained and the (sediment on the bottom of the pond) would be dewatered and shipped away.”

Obtaining the appropriate permits is the first phase in the dredging process and, on average, can take nearly 18 months to complete, Stahl said. “Many people move forward with the permitting process but when they see how much (dredging) costs, they decide not to move forward.”

Although Oppenheimer does not know what grants are available at this time for Willow Pond, he urges residents to aid in the research and grant writing process. “I’d like to sit down with residents and divide the grant research into a county, town, state and federal level,” he said. “We need to start digging in, getting names and information because one grant feeds another. (One municipality) realizes they can participate without footing the entire bill.”

He expects the grant process to take up to five years to gather enough funds to move forward with the project. “Today, most government agencies are not so forthcoming (with grant money),” he said. “But the opportunities are there and need to be pursued.”

James and Violet McKeon, who have lived on Pond Lane in Hewlett Bay Park since 1964, said there has never been a problem with Willow Pond until this year when duckweed started covering the top and killing off the wildlife. “There are no fish this year at all,” James said.

Willow Pond’s shallowness, duckweed and sediment problems are very serious and need to be addressed as soon as possible, Violet said. “This is not something to ignore and I will do whatever I can because this pond belongs to the community,” she said. “Residents need to write to their elected officials in order to speed up this process. These little creatures depend on us and we can’t just stand by and watch them die out.”

Willow Pond will be discussed at Hewlett Bay Park’s meeting on Monday, Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m., at Village Hall, located at 30 Piermont Ave., in Hewlett.