Via NY Daily News
Coney Island and Manhattan Beaches were closed yesterday after a raw sewage overflow from a local treatment plant. One man was even arrested then cited for disobeying the order to stay out of the water.
Until further notice, swimming is not permitted at Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Kiddie Beach and Kingsborough/Seagate Beach
The beaches will be tested daily to determine when they will be reopened.
Weren’t children swimming in it this weekend? Thats gross. Why did Kiddie Beach management allow this?
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@?????, They were too preoccupied with getting GerritsenBeach.net off of the property to worry about a little thing like swimming in raw sewage.
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So sad
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Can you swim in Gerritsen beach when water is clean?
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@gabe,
Yes you can! it is actually much cleaner than it used to be. The rain causes runoff!
i was over by the salt marsh yesterday with my son and saw feces on the shoreline…it was so gross.
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Get yourself a test kit, and test the waters yourself, Do not rely on the Govt. to tell you when safe is safe, after all, did’nt the Govt. tell the soldiers it was perfectly safet to walk into the cloud
after the A bomb tests? do it yourself, the kit is simple to use and cheap…….When i was living in G.B. i used to test the water every time i went in…..
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@nfh,
You dont have to test it… here is a simple method. Wait 48-72 hours after it rains and you will be fine.
@GerritsenBeach.net, Sad, but true. It would also help matters a bit if people, who clean up after their dogs, did’t throw the poop filled plastic bag into the corner storm sewers.
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Is their a beach daily routine for checking the water as well as the shoreline for dangerous debri and if anything is found does it have to be reported to any city agency?
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THE SEWAGE SPILL DIDN’T HAPPEN UNTIL SUNDAY. IT AFFECTED ALL BROOKLYN BEACHES, NOT JUST KIDDY BEACH. SATURDAY THE WATER WAS FINE THAT IS WHY THERE WAS SWIMMING. SUNDAY THE WATER WAS CLOSED. THEY HAD A WATER SLIDE FOR THE KIDS.
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what a bunch of woosies, we used to swim in creek since the 40’s in fact we used to hang onto the barge that took the crap behind mau-mau where they dumped it. you would not believe the stuff in the water then and we survived and are probably healthy because it made our immune system stronger
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@ex beach bum, We used to swim in the creek near Allen & Knapp in the 70’s, I don’t think the water was all that great then either. We used to swim right through those rainbow colored oil slicks from the boat engine oil and gasoline, I think I’m okay, Ah those were the days no test kits, and no supervision.
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I agree with Beach Bum. We all swam in kiddie beach and the creek in the 60’s. Our immune systems are strong. It might have helped build up our immune systems. Thank God we did not have video games. The kids today are like veal. They stay in all day. We played sports every day year round and in all weather. It made us fit and healthy.
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Then why is there so much cancer in the beach . I’m not saying it has anything to do with Kiddie beach but mau mau is a different story .
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i think the cancer might be coming from all the planes flying over the beach , when they pass over you smell kerosene not to good for the lungs and skin.
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The first comment about Kiddie Beach management letting children swim last weekend, is based on ignorance. Swimming was permitted, as approved by the Board of Health, on Saturday. Upon getting a call from the Board of Health on Sunday, we closed access to the water, immediately. One parent told me, he had been informed by a relative the night before, there had been a sewage back-up, but he was told that was confidential. That was irresponsible of the City for attempting to keep it quiet. Were they hoping it would go away? No one was permitted in the water following our closure–along with Coney Island and Manhattan Beach.
There are a few positive suggestions that we will initiate, if we don’t already follow the ’self-testing’ procedure. We have experienced managers, but there is always room for improvement. When we have not been pounded by rain storms, the creek is crystal clear. Far better than it was when I was a boy, when we swam at the “Point”, and Kiddie Beach was not what it is today. For the person who saw feces along the shoreline. Did you check to determine if it was dog, raccoon, or opossum? Maybe ‘Casey the Crime Photographer’ can start pointing his camera towards people who walk their dogs and do not pick up after them, as they are supposed to by law. Are your dogs bringing home ticks, now that the weeds are beginning to climb as high as an elephants eye? Not to worry! The Parks Dept. is going to plant trees soon. First they are going to ’spray’ the weeds. We had a debris incident on Sunday, and followed the “New York City Beach Safety Plan”, “Protocol” (PLUS!) There are more than 70 pages of regulations. A daily log is kept and turned in to the NYC Dept. of Health each week. It includes tides and time, any questionable debris, etc.
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@George R. Broadhead, I read this web site daily and have always been impressed with your intelligent comments, however over the last few days, I have noticed that you have resorted to name calling “Casey the Crime Photographer” and am really disappointed. Previously, you have been able to see two sides of a story and respond in kind. I am confused as to the new “attitude” you are displaying. My only suggestion is to take alittle time to think and not to respond to an issue while angry. Stick to the issues and try to be the better person. This venue is becoming more childish each day. People keep referring to the webmaster as a kid, but all parties are behaving like pre schoolers.
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@neighbor, Agrees completely…everyone needs to grow up. Everyone wants what is best for the community and everyone has different ideas about what that is. There are a couple of people who post ridiculous comments on here just to get a rise out of others…ignore them! Someone is always going to find something negative to say…even the “Welcome home” stories get stupid comments.
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I lived in the beach for over 50 years, and never saw the creek “crystal clear”, I guess things are changing for the better….mabe its time to move back?????
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There is a reason for the noticeable change in some of my recent comments. First, “Casey the Crime Photographer” is a generational thing (1930’s–1960’s) and meant to be a tongue-in-cheek message to the website owner. The subjective purpose of some of my change of tone has resulted in a very worthy personal response from the publisher of this website. We even spent some time together today, looking at problem areas on a few Courts. I want him to succeed, but not at the expense of our community. Take a look at the growth of weeds from Florence Avenue to Seba Avenue. When will the ‘paid’ Parks Dept. people get around to even coming close to what volunteers have been doing along Gerritsen Avenue for years. They reacted quickly enough to one matter that appeared on this site, maybe a photograph or two will get them to react to another. Most blogs attract a certain amount of childish or impulsive response, and while it is foolish to try to respond or engage some of them, some by accident or design, can prove helpful. One person wrote that he tested the water himself before swimming every time he or she went in the water in Gerritsen Beach when living here. That motivated me to inquire of the NYC Dept. of Health… to learn if we could acquire a “test kit” of some kind to test the water ourselves before we opened Kiddie Beach of a day. I was informed that there is no such thing that would give results on the spot. All water samples would have to be sent to a lab for study of the bacteria, and the results would take 48 hours. Therefore, we must depend upon the NYC Dept. of Health… to inform us about closing. We did this on Sunday, June 7th, as previously mentioned, and got everyone out of the water, and so it remained for the day. Our managers, and LIfeguards set up a water slide for the children.
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@George R. Broadhead, If the parks department is not or has not been doing their job, that is the issue that should be addressed. We pay quite a bit of taxes here in the city and as tax payers should expect these jobs to be completed by the people who are getting paid to do so. I can understand volunteers prettying up the neighborhood and even hanging lights and flags, but if I was employeed by the parks department I should be responsible for maintaining parks land. Someone is not doing their job and in the past the volunteers have stepped in for the better of the neighborhood but that is not a solution. You never see overgrown weeds in Marine Park and I have never seen volunteers cutting the grass. We need to stop doing the parks departments job and obtain the services that should be provided. I feel that because we have been maintaining things for so long, the parks department relys on that and puts it time and money into other neighborhoods.
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I’m going to cut to the chase on this one: Last Sunday, a Parks Dept. employee on a large mower rode to the back of the field and parked for over an hour. A second employee arrived and joined the other. They must have been having a high level mower meeting. A lot of grass could have been cut during that first hour when there weren’t people on the field. However, cutting began, once people were on the field. Compare that to Volunteers from GBCares who kept the avenue cut back 10 feet, and it was kept pristine.
“We need to stop doing the parks departments job and obtain the services that should be provided. I feel that because we have been maintaining things for so long, the parks department relys on that and puts it time and money into other neighborhoods”. Are you familiar with the “Prospect Park Alliance” and the “Central Park Conservancy”. Both of those major parks depend on the help of volunteers. The following is from the CPC brochure on becoming a park volunteer: “…”Not only will you have the satisfaction of helping to keep the Park clean, green and beautiful for everyone’s enjoyment, but you’ll make new friends, stay in shape, and clear your mind’. Is it any wonder that Mike, Buddy, Bob, Joe, Ray and others, are in such great shape and have such clear minds…. What’s going to happen to them, now that they have been put on hold by the Parks Dept. How long will it be before the bureaucrats downtown copy the Central and Prospect Park format of ‘pay to volunteer’? If my written tone seems harsh, you would know it to be calm and logical, if we were face to face discussing this issue.
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@George R. Broadhead, You have some good points but you are not always right. You take any comment as a personal attack or at least, that is the feeling perceived from your responses. No I was not aware of any park alliance programs, but are these volunteer workers responsible for cutting grass? I also was not aware that the parks department has put gerritsen beach volunteers on hold. I was under the assumption that the volunteers put themselves on hold.
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I appreciate your candidness, and I haven’t taken your comments as personal attacks. I often write and rewrite to cut down on my verbosity (but it hardly ever works). I’ll try not to convey so much defensiveness. It’s never myself I’m defending, but our community. Someone earlier wrote that it may be time to return to Gerritsen Beach, if the waters are crystal clear. I did return, and it’s the best move I ever made, and most days the water is crystal clear. As for our volunteers, they haven’t put themselves on hold. Both Michael Taylor and Buddy DeWitt participated in putting in the handicap accessible walkway in the Community Garden (for which GBPOA is responsible by contract with BPL); Ray Schaefer, who personally made the flag pole at Kiddie Beach, lowered the pole (his construction of the pole is a masterpiece) and painted it in time for opening day. I do try to defend these men and others who have given 12 years of their time to trying to enhance our community. Two of our most unselfish volunteers, Tom and Katey Gavit, have done more to prepare Kiddie Beach for the season, than anyone could imagine. In the meantime, they were reprimanded by a ‘park ranger’ when they crossed the avenue to do something special in the “park” recently. No volunteer work permtted across the avenue! I made my own inquiry about GBCares, and I learned that one year the GBCares Board rewarded their volunteers with a turkey for the holidays. That is the one incident of “compensation”. That is why I sound defensive about the men and women of GBCares. Think of all of the “turkeys” we have always conniving to find ways to take and redistribute our hard-earned money. My reason for being so defensive about Kiddie Beach has to do with that mentality. Somewhere, lurking in the halls of bureaucracyville there are those who couldn’t care less about the recreational use of this small parcel of land on a narrow creek. They only see how it could be converted to a cash cow. Finally, I know I’m not always right, but 999 times out of 1,000 isn’t a bad average. Only kidding….
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CORRECTION: This won’t be the only time… The Park Departments order to GBCares is to “cease and desist from the use of gas-operated tools and equipment on the park lands”. Volunteers have continued to engage in ‘clean-up’ every Saturday.
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Only kidding about the “crystal – clear, Mr. Broadhead, the only thing i see crystal clear these days are my Gin & Tonic.
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nfh: After my Cataract operations, my vision is near 20/20. One eye had some pressure, so my doctor prescribed: one martini and one drop before bed at night. Maybe you should switch from gin and tonic.
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