Comments on: Local Waters Closed Due to Sewage Spill

By: George R. Broadhead

George R. Broadhead — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:33:10 +0000

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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By: nfh

nfh — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:23:06 +0000

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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By: George R. Broadhead

George R. Broadhead — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:52:09 +0000

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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By: George R. Broadhead

George R. Broadhead — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:20:24 +0000

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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By: neighbor

neighbor — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:59:44 +0000

@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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By: George R. Broadhead

George R. Broadhead — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:53:32 +0000

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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By: neighbor

neighbor — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:22:40 +0000

@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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By: George R. Broadhead

George R. Broadhead — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:55:04 +0000

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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By: NFH

NFH — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:20:36 +0000

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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By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:17:06 +0000

@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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