It’s now operated by West Point
With three signatures, a ‘Community Commitment Pledge’ has been signed and the official summer season at Long Pond has begun.
At a ceremony at the recreation area last Friday, West Point Garrison Commander Col. Cecil Marson, Town of Highlands Supervisor Bob Livsey and Highland Falls Mayor Joe D’Onofrio all signed a document declaring a partnership for years to come at the local “swimming hole”.
The event was also a ribbon-cutting for the opening of Long Pond for the season. This is the first year that West Point’s MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation) has operated the beach-front lake, after decades of being operated by the Town of Highlands.
Marson said he was delighted to partner with the town at Long Pond.
He gave great credit to West Point’s DPW and MWR staff for making quick improvements to Long Pond (“they worked tirelessly”) — installing several large floating toys, adding a walking pier, putting out beach chairs, planting some new trees, resurfacing the parking lot — and said he is “so happy”.
“Kids are going to have memories of a lifetime out here,” he said. “This reminds me of back home in West Virginia of the ponds we used to swim at when I was a kid.”
He said he hopes Long Pond will find new life as a place that families with young children through teenagers will want to be.
“We will work together as a team,” he said, “to keep it an amazing place.”
He said there are more improvements to be made, including a bathhouse.
“We’re not going to stop,” he said, “this was just the entry point to getting it open for this summer and getting families in here. This is going to be really nice. We hope to see lots of families out here having a great summer.”
D’Onofrio said he could already see some improvements at the site.
“We’ve already had some compliments on the new venture,” the mayor said, “I want to thank the colonel, and West Point, for making this happen. This is a positive thing.”
Livsey said it’s “definitely a very positive thing”. He reminded users of the facility to, first, give themselves some time to get used to the new operation, and to express their concerns to him, D’Onofrio or Marson.
“I heard from someone that it was ‘too crowded’ the other day,” Livsey said. “To me that means a lot of people are here having a good time.”
He added: “We got kind of excited that West Point was going to take our swimming hole away. But as it all turned out through the cooperation of us and West Point, we came to an agreement which ended up to be this — a place for both communities.”
The pledge that the local leaders signed was to continue to work together, noting “we are committed to building strong communities”. It specified that the leaders of the three municipalities will continue to work together on projects like Long Pond.
Currently Long Pond is only open on weekends; once school gets out for the summer, it will be open seven days a week. For hours, fees and other updates visit www.westpoint.armymwr.com/programs/swimming.
