NEWS | THE LONG-ISLANDER, APRIL 1, 2004

Toilets No Trouble In Other Places

By Michael R. Sisak / The Long-Islander

The ongoing debate over a proposed public bathroom in Cold Spring Harbor is the latest in a series of fervent battles across Long Island to accommodate the disparate wants and needs of tourists, residents, business owners and nature.

Within the last six years, public toilets have been built in Bridgehampton and Riverhead; the Town of East Hampton has promoted its public facilities to quell human waste pollution from boats in surrounding waterways; and the Village of Ocean Beach on Fire Island installed toilets near its beach in 2002, some 17 years after the battle there first began with a lawsuit from a local businessman.

In the Village of Northport — which shares the same quaint, touristy feel as Cold Spring Harbor, the same hills and harbor geography and the same polar combination of high-class houses and small-town charm — a public bathroom has served the community for decades.

“It’s been there forever,” said Town Clerk Donna Koch. “I was born and raised here and it’s been there for as long as I can remember.”

“If you’re going to attract people from outside the community to shop, it’s only fair that you offer them a place to relieve themselves.”

The Cold Spring Harbor bathroom movement began in 2001 when, according to Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper, “the Cold Spring Harbor [Business Improvement District] had a vision for a visitors center with exhibits and community space and a place to give out brochures, and included in that was public restrooms.”

That plan has since been stripped to the current proposal, for a $100,000 state-and-federally-financed 18-foot by 16-foot “comfort station” that Main Street business owners say will alleviate tourist strains on their plumbing and keep their enterprises strong.

“They walk, they spend the day here, and human needs are such that they must use the bathroom,” Tom Hogan, a supporter of the proposed bathroom, said at a Huntington Town Board meeting, March 23. “There’s an absolute need for this type of facility.”

Residents have argued that the bathroom would have devastating effects on the environment, the economy and their quality of life

“I have reasons to be concerned as a member of this community, but more so as a former Cold Spring Harbor High School student,” said Marissa Heller, a 1999 graduate of the school, indicating that the bathroom, if built, could become an inviting destination for uncouth individuals — alcohol and drug consuming teenagers, child molesters, rapists and murderers.

Northport Village Police said that the bathroom there, which is tucked inside a park between the harbor and a parking lot and locked at night, has had a limited impact on local crime and instead serves to limit offenses of public urination.

“Our experience is that it’s more of a service to the community than it is a liability,” Sgt. Lawrence O’Gara said. “If you just take standard security precautions, it shouldn’t attract any more problems than any other structure. We don’t see it as a source that attracts trouble.”

The bathroom in Bridgehampton opened on July 4, 2001, without the kind of community opposition that has blanketed the Cold Spring Harbor plan, in part because planners there situated the facility in a centralized, well-lit location, away from residences, Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee member John Rand said.

“If you’re going to attract people from outside the community to shop, it’s only fair that you offer them a place to relieve themselves,” O’Gara said.

In January, a group of Cold Spring Harbor residents spoke of seceding the hamlet from the Town of Huntington and incorporating it as a self-governing village, to prevent the bathroom and other zoning maneuvers.

“[This bathroom debate] has resuscitated the question of whether Cold Spring Harbor should become an incorporated village,” Cooper said. “It may decide the future of this community.”