By Samuel Schultz
Several East Williston residents attended the village’s Board of Trustees meeting Monday to oppose a planned dog park site to be built at Roslyn Road Park.
The project, organized by Girl Scout Bree Janicek, is part of her Gold Award in honor of her friend, Anthony Leva Jr., of East Williston, who passed away from cancer in 2021 and originally had a goal of establishing a dog run for his Eagle Scout project.
The proposal for the dog park was put on hold previously, but now is being reconsidered according to the Dec. 11 board minutes.
“Mayor (Bonnie) Parente reported that she was recently advised that the Girl Scout Dog Park project, which is planned for the Town of North Hempstead Park on Roslyn Road, has received enough private funding to proceed. It is her understanding that the Scout has modified her plan based on the community input, which includes a smaller overall footprint and a shift in location to avoid the need for any tree removals”.
The Village has since uploaded the new plan to the village’s website for public viewing.
Residents brought up concerns including the possibility of noise in the neighborhood, which could affect children and individuals with auditory sensitivity who frequently use the current park. Other concerns are the limited buffer area for those who do not wish to use the dog park themselves, the lack of designated parking, ADA accessibility, and lack of staffing to ensure proper maintenance and regulation of dog rules.
Tensions flared as residents called out the board, saying they have failed in their responsibility to notify and seek the input of East Williston’s residents, conduct adequate research concerning the establishment of the dog park in a safe location and to justify the need for a dog park.
Dolores Sedacca, the former mayor of East Williston and her husband, Bob Sedacca, both voiced their opposition to the proposed dog park.
Despite the opposition, Parente said, “we’ve had meetings here where people came, we listened to them, we don’t make forgone conclusions, we listen to our residents.”
She continued: “After those meetings Trustee Lark and I worked on this and encouraged other avenues for the Scout to look at. We don’t know what she’s doing now.”
Lark added, “ They’ve essentially taken us out of the loop so to speak. We don’t know if it’s even on the agenda for another vote with the town. The town has not communicated anything back to us further nor has the Scout.”
Lark did mention that the town has been actively soliciting other Scout projects for the Roslyn Road park. He went on to say that he knows of one that has been submitted, which included adding some sort of Zen garden. Lark does not know how that plan will affect the town’s consideration of whether or not to have a dog park.
The board did publicly state that they have not taken a formal position on the subject matter and that ultimately the town has the jurisdiction to make the decision.
In other village news, the board announced the increased presence of a public safety car throughout the village. The plan is to have the car travel around every block every night.
In addition, the village is doing its first ever “Village Court Experience” starting March 7 on the town’s court dates on the first Thursday of every month. This experience will allow residents who are juniors or seniors in high school, at any level of college, or in their first year of law school to see courts as they operate at the lowest level in the court system.