In good news for Tully Park swimmers, the Town of North Hempstead told Schneps Media LI it plans to repair the hole in the ceiling above the center’s pool this year.
Multiple residents told Schneps Media LI that the ceiling of the facility’s indoor swimming pool has had a large hole in it with electrical wiring hanging from it for almost a year. Residents also complained of paint chipping and falling into the water, and mice running around the pool deck while adults and children swam, calling their concerns a safety issue.
“I’m just upset. This hole in the ceiling is ridiculous,” said Jerylan Zacarese, a North Hempstead resident and Tully Park member who uses the pool multiple times a week and said she knew people who were in the water when the ceiling fell down initially.
“These are dangerous situations that are in a government building, and they don’t do anything about it,” Zacarese added. “I believe that we all think that, one day, the ceiling is going to fall on this while we’re in the water.”
She said the hole in the ceiling also resulted in the pool bleachers being closed off, preventing parents from sitting to watch their children’s swimming lessons.
Zacarese said other people wanted to speak with the paper, but were scared to go on the record complaining about the state of the facilities, as they didn’t want to cause the town to close the pool for repairs.
“We all see that the place needs repairs. The problem is, we’re so afraid they’re going to close it,” Zacarese said. She said that, despite her complaints, the facility offered an invaluable resource to her and her friends who swim indoors in the colder months.
North Hempstead Parks Commissioner Kelly Gillen told Schneps Media LI that the town acknowledges the need for repairs and plans to fix the ceiling issue in their regularly scheduled maintenance period this year, which annually closes the facility for a few weeks towards the end of August and beginning of September.
“We acknowledge that there are repairs that are needed for upgrades to Tully,” Gillen said. “For the ceiling, the plan is to have that repaired.”
She added that the town has an exterminator who checks the facility every month and that she had not heard of any issues with mice.
Zacarese spoke to a slew of other issues the facility has had over the years she’s been swimming, including what she characterized as lacking maintenance and slow repairs to other areas like bathrooms, saunas, and an elevator despite seeing maintenance crews.
“This is a government building. I don’t understand how it can be left like this,” Zacarese said. She compared what she called a lack of attention to issues with Tully Park to the intensity of attention she’s felt as a homeowner from the town to her home.
“When I was a homeowner in New Hyde Park, they harassed me to death about needing to put up a piece of paper that said ‘my house was hooked up to a sewer in 1942’ and made me pay $35 for this piece of paper. That wasn’t a dangerous situation,” Zacarese said. “Now, this is dangerous. The ceiling is hanging down. I don’t understand how the building department in North Hampstead can harass the homeowners to death about these little nonsense things, [and] these dangerous occurrences in a government building are just overlooked.”
But Gillen and North Hempstead Council Member Dennis Walsh, who represents the district that Tully Park falls in, said the town has devoted millions of dollars in recent years to renovations and repairs, more than the park received in decades, something he attributed to the current town board, led by North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jen DeSena.
“I believe that the change in administration is what caused the investment in Tully,” Walsh said, adding that he has helped steer more money towards Tully Park over the past two and a half years.
Walsh said the park’s recent repairs, including renovations to its parking lot, soccer field, pickleball courts, track, and dog park, were made within the past few years. He said he was committed to continuing to push the town to improve the park.
“Tully, at one time, was the jewel of the Town of North Hempstead,” Walsh said. “You can’t fix everything that has been neglected for 30 years in six months. We’re going to continue to invest in Tully, and we’re going to fix it up the way it should be.”
