As I walked around Hall's Pond Park during last Sunday's Kids Fun Day festivities, I had but one thought: "If the heavens were merciful, it would rain." Not that the celebration was anything other than a delight -- for Allison Shapiro and her crew of volunteers and performers did a most laudable job. A 'thank you' to all who participated! It was, alas, the venue which caused me concern. Simply put -- Hall's Pond Park is a disgrace, unfit to serve as grazing land for mad cows, let alone as the 'centerpiece' of our community.

Leave aside (if you could) the goose droppings which festoon the walkways and (what passes for) grass, and overlook the McDonald's unhappy meal containers and Carvel cups which litter the park. The shrubs (if you can call them that), and grass (where there was any) were overgrown. The garbage pails were overflowing. The slats on the benches were broken and badly in need of paint. Graffiti jumped out from the walkways and the sides of the PAL and Auxiliary Police buildings. The water (if that is water) in the pond was stagnant and filled with trash. On the north end, the pond emitted a stench akin to raw sewage. Why, even the mosquitoes had abandoned the park! Certainly, Hall's Pond Park is no place for a Fun Day, let alone the upcoming Harvest Festival, or next year's Shakespeare in the Park.

True, the County considers Hall's Pond to be an "inactive" park. Inactive, perhaps, but surely, not invisible. The best efforts of the Community Green volunteers (whose little patches of flowers are the only bright spots in an otherwise dismal locale), are undone by the County's utter neglect. A million dollar filtration system, on the fritz since day one; snakes and rodents passing for wildlife in the creek which runs off into the pond; broken bottles and last month's newspapers strewn about the park.

"We have no money," cry officials at the County Seat, whose Parks & Recreation budget is but a shell of its former self. "We cannot afford to maintain the park." Remind me again what those tax dollars are going for? I seem to have forgotten. While minimalism may play well at MOMA, it has no place in our community. And certainly, the cesspool that passes as a pond, and the scrub that calls itself a park, have no place smack dab in the center of America's wealthiest county.

West Hempstead deserves a park it can be proud of. A home to a gazebo, to summer concerts, to festivals and celebrations. A park which truly says, 'Welcome' to our community, and not, 'beware all those who enter here.' If the County can't -- or won't -- meet its obligation to our community, let it transfer ownership of Hall's Pond Park, and responsibility for its upkeep, to the Town of Hempstead. The Town's parks are, for the most part, clean, well kept, meticulously maintained, and the source of great pride. Let the good people of our town raise their voices in celebration at this year's Holiday at Hall's, in a park befitting a warm, inviting, caring community, tired of excuses, and insistent that the County provide the services which we, the people, pay so dearly for.

Seth D. Bykofsky

President

West Hempstead Civic Association