Portable restrooms make return appearance to Cold Spring Harbor

Temporary lavatories have returned to Cold Spring Harbor to accommodate visitors to the village just in time for the summer season.

Town of Huntington officials have agreed to lease three of the restroom facilities on behalf of the Cold Spring Harbor Business Improvement District and the Cold Spring Harbor Main Street Association, which will then reimburse the town.

"We always welcome visitors and boaters to the Cold Spring Harbor area, to any of the areas throughout the town," said Town Supervisor Chad Lupinacci. "This will be just a little more welcoming and offer a convenience factor."

The village is a popular destination because of Cold Spring Harbor State Park and access to the Greenbelt Hiking Trail and Billy Joel Park, with its launching ramps that give boaters, kayakers and paddle boarders access to Cold Spring and Inner harbors.

But there are no public restrooms.

Tom Hogan, president of the Cold Spring Harbor BID, said thousands of people come to the village every weekend.

"We welcome people and love our shoppers and guests," he said. "But our shops don’t have sewers and the expense to the property owner is too extreme to have two or three hundred people coming into their shop and asking to use the lavatory."

Two of the facilities will be in Billy Joel Park and one in the municipal parking field by the post office, from now through November.

Hogan said 2021 will be the third year that portable toilets will be placed in the village. He said that after the first year with two portable toilets the vendor called and said a third was needed because of "demand."

The BID previously funded the facilities with private sponsors, but this year asked town officials, who have access to more cost-effective prices through government contracts. The leases total $1,440 for eight months.

He said though the community is grateful for the portable toilets, what’s really needed are permanent structures.

"The best thing that could happen in our community is if the town were to install a proper lavatory facility, which you see in many, many communities throughout Suffolk County," Hogan said.