How's the water, Bay Parkers?

As you may have noticed, the Lynbrook/East Rockaway Herald has added a small tag — with big meaning — to the front of our newspaper. The tag reads, “Also serving Bay Park.”

What isn’t news is that we have always “served” and covered happenings in that area, but we felt that is was time to recognize that fact.

Bay Park, although part of East Rockaway but not within the village proper, and with an East Rockaway postal address, it’s also an entity unto itself. As soon as you turn the corner at Skippy’s Way near the Joseph F. Carrigan Point and the famed White Cannon — only one of the ways into the area — you are truly and literally in a waterfront community.

Houses of all different shapes and sizes dot the Bay Park landscape. Some of them used to be bay-side bungeloes, used as summer residences. Neighbors are nestled close together on some streets. Other homes are larger, and built more recently.

The beach at Hewlett Point, a Town of Hempstead area, was refurbished in the last few years and boasts a beautiful pool, a kiddie pool and play area, picnic tables, a food stand, a basketball court and volleyball and tennis courts. The 1,100 foot beach has lifeguards on duty in the summer months, and also serves as one of the on-the-water concert venues sponsored by the Town.

The Bay Park golf course, bordered by the East Rockaway Channel on the east and Hewlett Bay on the south and west, is a Nassau County property on 96-acres, boasting a executive-level 9-hole, par-30 golf course.

In the park itself, there is a popular dog run and picnic tables along the bay. People fish off of the rocks and along the pier by the boat ramp. It’s a beautiful place to take a stroll after dinner or on a breezy Sunday afternoon.

In the coming issues, we will be featuring all that Bay Park has to offer, including its history, its residents, its water sports and even the controversial sewage treatment plant. (On the next page, we talked with the president of the Bay Park Civic Association). So, Bay Parkers, email me and tell me what you love about your community and what you would like to see in upcoming issues. Send photos!

mmalloy@liherald.com

Writing on the Wall won 1st place for Best Column Writing with Suburban Newspapers of America, 2010.