Politics & Government
Recently Renovated Tackapausha Museum May Face Budget Ax
County Executive says museum on Massapequa/Seaford border is candidate to be closed.
Just three weeks after an announcment that renovations to the Tackapausha Preserve and Museum are almost done, Nassau County is seriously considering closing the museum on the border of Massapequa and Seaford.
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano announced Wednesday that as a part of his “Fix Nassau Now” budget for 2012, the county will be looking to close county-operated museums that do not generate revenue. When pressed for specifics, Mangano admitted that the Tackapausha Museum could be among the first to go.
“There are museums we cannot afford to keep open,” Mangano said. “Garvies Point and Tackapausha would be likely candidates.”
This announcement by Mangano comes less than three weeks after Schmitt, R-Massapequa, announced that renovations to the Tackapausha Preserve and Museum were nearing completion.
The public will still be able to enjoy the improvements made to the preserve itself, which include new pathway lighting, new benches and repairs to pedestrian bridges.
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But the newly added “Discovery Center” in the museum may fall by the wayside, however, if the museum is closed down.
According to Legislator Schmitt, the county invested upwards of one million dollars of funds from the Environmental Bond Acts of 2004 and 2006 to make improvements to Tackapausha.
As explained on the county’s website, the Environmental Bond Act was set up to recognize the “urgent need to identify financial resources to protect the County’s remaining open space, natural resources, parklands, and drinking water, and to advance the remediation of contaminated properties around the County.”
Mangano’s budget will be passed along to the county legislature today. They then have until Oct. 30 to make changes. At that time, the fate of the museum should be known. Schmitt said the potential closing of Tackapausha is one budget related issue with which he will personally take issue.
“When it comes to the legislature you can bet if we’re going to close one [museum], we’re going to close them all until this fiscal crisis passes,” he said. “I won’t have one community bearing the burden while others are spared.”
Schmitt predicted that if the decision comes down to close the museum, it will take effect by the end of the year “or sooner.”
