Nassau to close pools, parks earlier due to spraying

Nassau County outdoor swimming pools will close earlier and all county parks will close at 7 p.m. Thursday night to accommodate aerial spraying to target mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus, County Executive Edward Mangano said Wednesday.

In addition, the county's regularly scheduled night movie at Lakeside Theatre in Eisenhower Park Thursday will be canceled, Mangano said. The movies will resume Aug. 19.

Parks and swimming pools also closed earlier last night after an early spike in positive West Nile samples from mosquito pools and two confirmed human cases of the potentially fatal disease prompted the county to conduct aerial spraying for the first time since 2008. Health officials said last week 49 mosquito pools had tested positive for the virus, the highest number at that point in the season since the disease was first detected in New York in 1999.

Last night, Nassau officials reported the second human case of West Nile in the county this year - a Massapequa Park woman, 74, who became ill on July 28 with symptoms of fever. She was hospitalized July 29, discharged on Aug. 5 and is recovering at home, officials said.

Nassau's health department said Tuesday its two-day aerial pesticide treatment would include an area between Northern Boulevard to the north; Sunrise Highway to the south; the Queens borough line to the west and the Suffolk County line to the east.

The last time Nassau County sprayed by plane, in 2008, an area of 55,000 acres was treated, health department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain said. "But because we're seeing more widespread viral activity in mosquitoes, this year we're spraying about 78,000 acres by air," she said.