Lakeview Resident to Return Award from Nassau County

Lakeview native Cay Fatima has announced she will be returning the “Trailblazer Award” given to her by the Nassau County Legislature on March 18 after learning that the county allegedly planned to rename her Environmental Bond Act Program project.

Fatima’s project called for a garden to be named Roderick Cockerham Botanical Peace Garden. Cockerham was a Lakeview teenager who was shot and killed by his neighbor in 1989.

However, Fatima claims that the county executive’s office has highjacked her Environmental Bond Act Project by orchestrating a ribbon cutting ceremony for a “Lakeview Peace Garden” scheduled for May 28.

“I feel extremely betrayed by the county in their refusal to use the rightful, legal name of my creation Roderick Cockerham Botanical Peace Garden,” Fatima said. “Every quarterly report, including the most recent first 2013 quarter indicates Nassau County Department of Public Works asked the county legislature to make payments for expenditures for park improvement project No. 046-The Roderick Cockerham Botanical Peace Garden.”

Fatima, who said she has been working on the project for 20 years, recently called out several members of the Nassau County administration, including Legis. Robert Troiano, D-Westbury, and County Executive Ed Mangano, for their alleged role in the incident.

“I did not submit a proposal for a generic ‘peace’ garden,” Fatima said. “I specifically was looking for a home for a well thought out creative design that would provide multi-faceted community purposes and usage.”

According to Fatima, county officials at the departments of public works and parks and recreation began to malign, slander and defame the late Cockerham, by spreading rumors, innuendo and hearsay that he was a gang member and involved in criminal activity to justify not using his name.

Fatima said she was told by Parks Commissioner Carnell Foskey, also a Lakeview resident and former judge, that the county does not name facilities after individuals.