By April of 2020, my wife and I knew that this summer would be like no other.
Our monthly trips to visit grandchildren in Washington DC and St. Louis Mo. would not occur nor would our grandchildren be able to travel to New York.
Our summer barbeques and get-togethers with our friends would only be a memory of past summers.
We recognized that even the Great Neck Park Summer Concerts were not likely to occur.
But what did occur was Parkwood Pool was opened and a system was put in place for the first time so that as long as you put in a reservation a week ahead both my wife and I could go to Parkwood.
Judi enjoyed walking in the Lazy River with a friend. I had the opportunity to enjoy  the summer weather, chat with friends both in and out of the pool and do some lap swimming,
In the forty years that we have lived in Great Neck this was the first summer when I could swim laps without having to deal with the difficulty of sharing a lane.
I want to thank the park commissioners, park administration and staff. You did a wonderful job and in a real sense, you saved the summer for so many residents.
Elliot Rosenzweig
Great Neck
I was very disappointed at the way Parkwood handles reservations. Instead of making a reservation a day in advance, reservations began with people making reservations for the entire week, then it was one day a week in advance. I know a lot of people who made reservations and never cancelled their reservations. This made it impossible for other people to go to the pool. From what I have been told, the pool was rarely up to compactly. Lake Success pool had people make reservations for the following day. Many people do not know what they will want to do a week in advance. Should there be restrictions next summer, I feel they need to re-evaluate the system of reservations.
Thank you Elliot for your kind words to those who made Parkwood Pool available to us this summer. They did their very best to give us a safe place where we were able to let our stresses go for a few hours every day. We are so very lucky to live in a community with a Parks Department that serves its constituents so well. Kudos to everyone who helped give us a wonderful gift this summer!