This kid is the greatest of all time!
A Windsor Terrace tyke suggested the winning name for Prospect Park’s recently acquired floating weed harvester, which green-space officials officially christened the “Floating Goat” at a Nov. 16 ceremony near the Boathouse in Brooklyn’s Backyard.
Eight-year-old Jack Costas joined leaders of meadow steward the Prospect Park Alliance and local officials at the naming event, where the youngster stressed the importance of the vessel that sucks up unwanted plants on the surface of Prospect Park Lake and spits them out as mulch.
“If there wasn’t anything to clean up weeds, there wouldn’t be anywhere to play, because it would be covered in weeds,” he said.
Costas’s “Floating Goat” moniker was one of some 300 that locals suggested to the Alliance for its quasi-democratic process, in which green thumbs whittled down the hundreds of options to a short list of nine they could live with, according to a spokeswoman for the park keepers.
“We didn’t want to be copy cats of Boaty McBoatface,” said Lucy Gardener, referencing the popular, but overruled, crowd-sourced moniker for a British ship officials asked the public to name in 2016.
Alliance leaders then asked locals to vote for their favorite of the nine finalists — which included such inspired names as “Weedzilla” and “Chompy” — and more than 700 weighed in, with Costas’s submission winning by a slim 30-vote margin, Gardener said.
The youngster’s inspiration, of course, was the cloven-footed farm hands the Alliance hired to help clear weeds and unwanted vegetation in the park’s Vale of Cashmere in 2016 and 2017.
And his whole family partied when they found out he won the competition, his mom said.
“It was just a huge celebration in our house,” said Jaime Costas.
In addition to eternal local fame, the lad received Brooklyn’s Backyard swag including a frisbee, water bottle, and temporary tattoos — along with the prized opportunity to cut class early to attend the naming ceremony, he said.
“My friends are only jealous that I got to leave early,” said Costas, a student at PS 154 in Windsor Terrace.
The boy also got what he called a once-in-a-lifetime chance to drive the vessel he christened, after Alliance president Sue Donoghue and pols including Flatbush Councilman Mathieu Eugene formally announced its new name.
“I felt really good, because I usually only get to ride on the boat,” Costas said.
