Glen Cove mayor hopes Crescent Beach reopens for summer season

Glen Cove Mayor Reginald Spinello hopes to have the city's Crescent Beach -- closed for swimming since 2009 because of high bacteria levels -- reopened for this summer.

Spinello said he is optimistic that discussions with the Nassau County Department of Health about a plan for remedial actions and better water quality testing will lead to the agency reinstituting bathing on the beach fronting Long Island Sound.

He said that working with the city's consultants and the health department, city officials have proposed a new program of remediation and testing.

"I have been told that they are going to be looking for us to have an eight-week aggressive sampling program because they are looking for more data," he said. "And we will be spelling out for them more of our plan to monitor the area, because that's the only area in Glen Cove where there are cesspools."

Spinello added that "we'll probably have to plant different types of vegetation. And there is raking we can do at the beach."

Health department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain said city officials have "been advised that they need to determine the causes of the elevated bacteria levels, and as long as those levels exceed the standards, the beach will remain closed."

Under pressure from the city, health department and state Department of Environmental Conservation, nearby property owner Marvin Schein last August sealed with concrete a pipe that was discharging sewage from his mansion into wetlands adjacent to the beach.

"It seems that the bacteria counts have gone down since then," Spinello said.