Actions by the City of New Rochelle have jeopardized a $700,000 state grant to turn the closed and condemned Oakwood Pavilion at Five Islands Park into a coastal education center where kids and families can learn marine science on the Long Island Sound. 

2025 New Rochelle Eco-Ambassadors at Five Islands Park with teacher Carmen Glenn and Jonathan LaRosa

On September 30, 2026, the state notified all parties of the City’s non-compliance.  Failure to meet the terms of the grant may result in the loss of funds to create the center and it may also put the Eco-Ambassador program at risk.  

This State requires a signed agreement between the City and its nonprofit partner before work can start so that they know the funds will go towards creating a Center.  After almost a  year of delays, missed deadlines and obfuscation by the City, the State has issued a warning that the grant could be lost.  

Since 2022, the City has supported the Eco-Ambassadors, an initiative proposed by New Rochelle teacher, Jonathan LaRosa. It is run as part of the Youth Bureau’s Learn to Earn Summer Youth Employment Program that provides experiential learning opportunities related to ecology, sustainability, and climate change.  

In 2023, a partnership with the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center (EJLPC), a New Rochelle nonprofit, was created in an effort to enhance the Eco-Ambassadors initiative.   

In 2024, two New Rochelle teachers, LaRosa and Carmen Glenn, the New Rochelle Youth Bureau, and EJLPC received a $100,000 grant to expand the New Rochelle Eco-Ambassador Summer Program.  The new grant enabled the project to purchase needed equipment, pay summer interns, and support field trips.  

In 2024, the Oakwood Pavilion at Five Islands Park was utilized for the Eco-Ambassadors program for the first time. Constructed in 1981, the Oakwood Pavilion had served as a venue for special events, youth and recreation programming, and private rentals. Over the years, the facility’s deck and bathrooms were allowed to deteriorate. According to City Records, the City used it only 11 times last year.   

It was clear to the Eco-Ambassador team that there was a need for the facility to receive some extensive repairs and an opportunity to make it  something truly amazing for New Rochelle residents and a sustainable location for the Eco-Ambassador Summer Program. Through partnerships with Mercy University, Columbia University, and many other groups, City schoolchildren would have access to place-based marine science education right in New Rochelle, instead of having to travel to other towns. The idea was that while the primary purpose would be for the Center, it would also be used by the City for rentals and programs for the community. 

In January 2025, the City Council and City Manager issued the required resolutions and letter of support for the City to become the subgrantee to EJLPC’s application for a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Office of Environmental Justice grant. Of note, NYSDEC is the agency that recently recognized New Rochelle’s advancement to Silver-certified Climate Smart Community status.  

In April 2025, New Rochelle and EJLPC were awarded approximately $700,000 to create the coastal education center.  EJLPC also secured additional grants to engage the community on the future Center and the Long Island Sound. What had been seen as a great win for the New Rochelle community quickly turned into a bureaucratic stalemate.    

Since the award of the grant, the Oakwood Pavillion was allowed to deteriorate to the point it was condemned by the City’s Buildings Department. The grant-commissioned architects were denied access to the building.  Meetings to discuss terms of use were delayed, and the Corporation Counsel offered license agreements that were in violation of the terms of the grant.

Finally, in what was clearly meant to be a death blow, Corporation Counsel claimed that allowing EJLPC to use the pavilion for coastal education would be the equivalent of an illegal sale of parkland. This is laughable, as these centers thrive in Yonkers, Rye, Mamaroneck, throughout the state, and right here in New Rochelle.  

In particular, the City staff has embraced the Hudson Park Children’s Greenhouse (HPCG).  What is the difference between that project and the Eco-Ambassador Coastal Center? The City gave operational control  to HPCG in 2022.

HPCG was built on City-owned park land.  According to HPCG’s website, funding for the construction of the greenhouses was obtained with a combination of private donations and grants, including a NYS grant.  HPCG has exclusive use and control of the greenhouse for programs.  Long-term maintenance and operating costs are funded by support from the City of New Rochelle, grants for environmental programming, private donations, fund raising activities, and fees arising from small events and garden classes.  

The Coastal Center will also be a joint effort with the City.  Unlike the HPCG, it is anticipated that the most frequent user will be the City’s own Eco-Ambassador program.  So why is there such determined opposition? 

The New Rochelle NAACP notes the following: “For generations, Black families were kept away from beaches, parks and waterfronts, by law and by custom, and it was never only a Southern story. In the late 1930s, NAACP attorneys Randal Tolliver and Leon Scott sued Westchester County over its Jim Crow public beach policies, and won. In the years that followed, formerly public beaches in the county were turned into private clubs. By 1960, New Rochelle’s nine miles of waterfront held only two public beaches. 

The effects of that exclusion still show up today in who feels welcome at the shore and who grows up picturing a future in the sciences. Equal access to public resources is a civil rights issue, and our shoreline is no exception.” 

One can call the City staff’s efforts to halt this project unconscious bias or something else.  Whatever, it is killing a project that has the potential for changing lives. Because EJLPC has relied on the project for grants, killing this project will also end the Eco-Ambassador program. Now is the time for the City Manager to end this stalemate, work for the benefit of all New Rochelle residents, and bring marine science education to New Rochelle’s coastline. When the City is in a budget crisis, why are they turning away $700k for a pavilion in desperate need of repair?

The City Manager can be reached at citymanager@newrochelleny.gov or 914-654-2140.   It’s not too late to save the project! We must demand nice things. Learn more and take action here.