The Village Manager has re-engaged the same aerator vendor with a new $6,000 pond study proposal, despite the community's unanimous opposition in September 2025.
Not exactly. At the September 15, 2025 community meeting, every resident who spoke opposed the motorized aerator, and the vendor himself withdrew his proposal. The agreed next step was a scientific partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension and NY Sea Grant.
Rather than pursuing that path, the Village Manager has re-engaged the same vendor (Ever Blue Lakes) with a new $6,000 proposal. The community asked for independent science first, and that request hasn't been followed.
The vendor's own representative told the Board that the pond has likely reached a "steady state" and is not getting substantially worse each year. He said if the community finds that acceptable, "don't spend any money on it."
That doesn't mean we should ignore the pond. It means the right approach is the one the community agreed to: let Cornell and Sea Grant assess it with actual science, then decide on next steps based on real data.
The concern is independence. EverBlue Lakes sells aeration systems, so their assessment would naturally be viewed through that lens. The proposal even includes a watershed assessment, which is something the community wanted, but from an independent source, not from the company selling the equipment.
Cornell Cooperative Extension and NY Sea Grant offered to help with the same kind of work. Their assessment would carry more credibility with the community and wouldn't raise questions about conflict of interest. That offer hasn't been pursued.
The community outlined a clear path forward in September 2025:
You can help: Send an email to the Village Manager and Board →
Background on Kaplan's Pond, the aeration proposal, and what the community learned during the 2025 review.
No. During the summer, green vegetation floats on the surface. This is common duckweed, a native species that drifts around the pond naturally. There is very little actual algae in the pond.
Duckweed is not a sign of an unhealthy pond. It provides food for ducks and fish, shades the water to limit true algae growth, and absorbs excess nutrients. It is part of a functioning ecosystem, not a problem to be solved with industrial equipment.
No. The vendor admitted at the July 2025 Board meeting: "We can gather data and water quality data and sediment data on the pond. We've not done that." Village Manager Bryan Healy confirmed: "We don't test the water there."
The village has been claiming the pond "does not have adequate levels of dissolved oxygen" without ever measuring it. The entire project was proposed without baseline data.
The pond already supports a healthy ecosystem: fish, frogs, turtles, herons, owls, and other wildlife. There is no evidence that aeration would improve conditions for these species, and no site-specific study has been done.
What we do know is that a compressor running 24/7 from April through October would introduce constant industrial noise into what is currently one of the quietest natural areas in Croton. The impact of that noise on nesting birds, amphibians, and other wildlife has not been studied.
The vendor compared it to "a few year old dishwasher from 10-15 feet away." But a dishwasher runs for an hour. This compressor would run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 7 months straight. The nearest home is less than 100 feet away.
The vendor himself acknowledged that "an industrial compressor running outside someone's house at a level that disturbs their sleep or disturbs their enjoyment of sitting out on their deck on a spring or summer evening" would not work. Yet no sound test was ever conducted before the project was started.
They prove the opposite. A walking survey on July 21, 2025 documented approximately half an acre of algae coverage at Duck Pond, with large algae blooms sitting directly next to all three active aerators. The system has been running continuously and the vendor acknowledged that maintaining Duck Pond "has become more challenging."
The proposed Kaplan's Pond system would be two to four times the size of Duck Pond's, with a correspondingly larger compressor. If three aerators at Duck Pond aren't controlling algae there, installing a bigger system at Kaplan's Pond has no basis in evidence.
The initial installation was $4,000, plus $9,175 per year in maintenance for both ponds, plus an estimated $300 per month in electricity (about $2,100 per season). Once installed, the system must run continuously or the pond "goes into a kind of shock reaction," making it a permanent commitment of taxpayer funds with no exit strategy.
The new proposal adds another $6,000 just for an assessment, from the same vendor the community already rejected.
The project originated from a single resident's complaint in 2022. Over the next three years, the Village Manager developed the project with the vendor without public discussion. Residents only learned about it when they saw a backhoe and construction equipment at the pond in 2025.
Trustee Maria Slippen said she "found out about it by seeing a little backhoe there and asking what was happening." The Board received dozens of emails from concerned neighbors who had no idea the project existed. An electrical panel structure was installed without proper zoning review and has since been removed.
The community and Cornell Cooperative Extension identified several approaches that don't require permanent industrial equipment:
See our Healthy Pond Strategies page for details on each approach.