Spinello has let us down

Posted

To the Editor:

As a Glen Cove resident who lives on Crescent Beach Road, I was overjoyed to hear the news, announced by County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, that the source of the contamination of Crescent Beach had been found and that the total cost to fix the problem would be about $80,000, as opposed to the millions of dollars we had previously heard.

This beach has been closed for nearly a decade, and thanks to Delia’s leadership it looks like we may be able to see the day in the near future when the beach is open once again to the residents of Glen Cove. However, my joy was significantly reduced when I heard that our mayor, Reggie Spinello had information about one of the four pipes pumping raw sewage into the stream that feeds into the harbor since 2014 and appears to have done nothing about it; and had the new report identifying the source of the contamination for over a month and did not inform the City Council, the public, and apparently did nothing to start the wheels in motion to clean up and correct the problem.

I remember when Spinello ran for mayor in 2013 and told us he would get Crescent Beach open again. I remember when he told us in March 2014 that he would get the beach open by the summer. Those promises were not fulfilled. As if those broken promises weren’t enough, to now learn that that the mayor had information that he did not act on and failed to disclose to the public is simply unacceptable.

City Councilman Tim Tenke, who is running for Mayor against Spinello, spoke at the press conference announcing to the Glen Cove residents the good news about Crescent Beach. I know that even before this news Tenke had been outspoken about the fact that we needed more action towards getting Crescent Beach reopened. He has also criticized the secrecy of the current administration and its failure to communicate with the residents.

I’ve had enough of this mayor’s broken promises and his secretive conduct that disrespects the residents of Glen Cove, and I have no confidence he will promptly and openly act to fix Crescent Beach. We need a change because we need a mayor who will be transparent and who will finally get the job done at Crescent Beach.

Paul Sweeney

Glen Cove