It isn't easy being green. And it is expensive to stay that way.

Especially where Rye Town Park is concerned.

It is even more expensive in the midst of a heat wave that is melting the park's revenue. In June, the park had record-breaking seasonal beach and parking access revenue ($235,920 and $188,271,000 respectively), but these figures have dipped and were down $36,000 for the first two weeks of July compared to the same two weeks last year, despite differential pricing in favor of area residents.

That's why the Rye Town Park Commission–including Supervisor Joe Carvin and three area mayors, Rye City's Doug French, Rye Brook's Joan Feinstein and Port Chester's Dennis Pilla—has been weighing several intriguing new proposals for park when it comes to flora, fauna, greenbacks, even carp, sauna and caffeine.

Those recent proposals, for example, include introducing carp and dye into the duck pond to reduce the algae. Another suggestion is to turn the basement of the park's money draining administration building –with a recently completed roof repair that cost $1.5 million—into a money-making steam bath and sauna with a restaurant on top.

There is even a suggestion to study the renaissance of New York City's Bryant Park, including placing a coffee house kiosk on the lawn as Bryant Park did (are you listening Starbucks?) that would extend Rye Town Park's season well into the fall.

So officials are wrestling with ways to make the park better based on suggestions that come from interested community members such as Rye City's Kristina Bicher, a member the Rye Town Park task force, a citizens group that pressed for changes at the park, who came up with the Bryant Park idea, and Bill Lawyer, Assistant Director for Park Development, who mentioned the possibility of the sauna/steam room/restaurant for the administration building with the project to be paid for by an interested private corporation. Lawyer also suggesting using carp as a way of eating into the algae at the duck pond—something that has worked at Silver Springs—and if that doesn't work, injecting dye into the pond, neither of which would be costly.

How far out are these suggestions, which were made at the most recent Commission meeting in July at Rye Town Hall? And how viable are they in the midst of the current economic downturn?

Those are questions "I on Rye" pondered during that meeting as well as ever since.

And the answers depend on what is best for Rye Town Park as well as the community.

Because when you come right down to it, Rye Town Park and its 28 acres make up the local version of New York City's Central Park. And the park's Oakland Beach is our Hamptons.

So do we want Rye Town to become another Bryant Park with a coffee kiosk that could bring in a buck if not a Starbucks? And do we want a potential money-making version of Tavern on the Green, albeit with a Greenwich Village-style steam and sauna in the basement and a water view?

Neither of those possibilities would cost a bundle so they would be economically viable, even in the current dire economic climate, because they could both be almost certain moneymakers in the long run. But what would they do to the sylvan glade aspects of Rye Town Park?

Which brings up the philosophical question: Is Rye Town Park a not-for-profit community resource or should it pay for itself?

Those are questions the community must come up with answers for, questions that go beyond the "Is it a Park or a Parking Lot" slogan that resulted in reducing the number of cars on the park's lawn in the interest of safety while also addressing ecological concerns about preserving the flora and fauna. 

Before the administration building can possibly be turned into a steam and sauna, the Commission must solicit requests for proposals for ways to better utilize the administration building as a profit-making facility, a suggestion made by Carvin. Rye City Council and Commission member Joe Sack suggested forming a Citizens Advisory Committee to come up with suggestions, as well.

With Rye Town Park losing around $100,000 last year with a budget of about $1 million, the Commission hopes the park can break even this year, and some of these proposals may be vital to the longevity and sustainability of what has become an important community resource.

Carvin, French and Feinstein stressed that measures implemented to generate more revenue at the park, such as the differential pricing, are still a work in progress.

But the Commission's consensus is that they "keep on learning. We keep reviewing. And come September, we'll be taking a closer look at everything with an eye towards making things even better next year."

Sauna, steam, caffeine, carp, dye, and a restaurant facing Seaside Johnnies anyone?