The United States Merchant Marine Academy fulfilled a tradition of service Saturday, sending four waves of midshipmen to Kings Point Park to remove fallen trees from Hurricane Sandy.
“It’s tradition between us and the park authorities for our freshmen class to help clean the area,” said sophomore and training officer Jesse Crews. “This is the most desperately they’ve needed our help in the past decade.”
Great Neck activist Elizabeth Allen organized the event, formally known as all-hands-on-deck day.
Allen, who is the unofficial liaison between the merchant marine academy and the park, contacted the academy to arrange the cleanup. The park was already in need of cleanup from the microburst in June 2010 when Hurricane Sandy struck so the cadets’ participation was particularly welcome, she said.
“The cadets have been such a wonderful help in every capacity,” added park supervisor Bill McGirr. “A lot of the debris here can be removed manually, and they’ve volunteered so much of their services.”
The first wave of freshmen and sophomore midshipmen arrived at 10:30 a.m. McGirr ushered the volunteers to a pickup truck containing work gloves and wheelbarrows.
The cadets spent the next hour making trips to and from the park’s interior, carrying and wheeling natural debris from paths and waterways into a front parking lot. The event lasted four hours with alternating groups of 50 volunteers from the academy.
The park officials had cleared the area for the college students beforehand.
McGirr said park workers used power tools to cut the fallen trunks into portable parts, and cleared the main park paths so the cadets would be able to reach the interior, where most of the fallen trees are.
The park has arranged for FEMA workers to take the gathered debris to a disposal unit in North Hempstead.
Sandy caused record damage to Nassau and the greater New York area. Downed power lines and damaged electrical facilities knocked out power to more than 943,000 Long Island Power Authority customers, and left some Great Neck residents without electricity for weeks. The storm’s high winds also caused extensive damage to the peninsula’s trees, incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs that village governments expect will largely be reimbursed by FEMA and the state.
The park staff organized Saturday’s project to clear away any trunks that would have impeded water flow. Debris lying in a creek has been preventing four miles of storm runoff from flowing into Manhassett Bay, which McGirr said would cause a health hazard in the summer months, when mosquitoes gravitate towards stagnant water.
Great Neck Park District Commissioner Robert Lincoln estimated that the park will need three more months of rehabilitation, and he said he has further plans to plant new saplings.
Lincoln said, his long-term goal is to “give the forest room to breathe and continue to grow.”
He said he is currently seeking advice from local environmental experts and the state Department of Conservation.
The most damage after Sandy was near the Red Brook Road entrance to the park, where trees had fallen into people’s backyards, McGirr said.
The park immediately arranged for FEMA to remove debris from residents’ properties.
“This environmental component is very important,” McGirr said, “but we wanted to immediately address anything that would affect the quality of people’s lives.”
FEMA will compensate the workers for the overtime hours they have spent clearing the area, he said.
The United States Merchant Marine Academy frequently uses Kings Point Park for routine running and exercise. This connection has led the midshipmen to various volunteer projects throughout the years, notably helping eliminate invasive mustard seed plants between 2005 and 2010.
Their upcoming efforts will include cleanups in Great Neck’s various parks five times per year.
“All of our students are about service to their community and the nation,” says Commander Andrew McCarthy. “Today is a perfect example of them dedicating their free time to that cause.”
Residents of all Great Neck villages and unincorporated areas are eligible to use the park district with the exception of Great Neck Estates, Harbor Hills, Lake Success, Saddle Rock and University Gardens.
