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Loo coming to Volunteer Park

COURTESY PHOTO A similar public restroom, shown above, is slated to be installed at Volunteer Park for a cost of $122,000.
COURTESY PHOTO A similar public restroom, shown above, is slated to be installed at Volunteer Park for a cost of $122,000.

A state-of-the-art public rest room is slated for Volunteer Park off Bridge Street.

A new unit for the park was originally proposed by Chamber of Commerce President Art Williams and will be funded in part by the chamber with a $35,000 contribution. Called “the Portland Loo,” the new rest room is a sleek, efficient, single-toilet  unit manufactured in Portland, Oregon, according to Public Works Commissioner Jay Card Jr.

The idea to contact the company came from former Councilman Peter Reich.

Mr.  Card told the Town Board at its work session Tuesday that $122,000 is in place to pay for the unit and install it, with $67,000 coming from a Suffolk County grant, $20,000 from the town and the rest picked up by the chamber’s participation.

Mr. Card said the Portland Loo is constructed of “Marine-grade” stainless steel and has a 1,000-gallon tank underneath the unit.

It will be a flushable facility, unlike the portable toilet it’s replacing. Waste will still have to be pumped and removed but the large tank will cut down on the number of times it has to be serviced. The unit “has an open, louvered system at the bottom,” Mr. Card said, so if a tidal surge came into the park, water would just flow through the facility.

Councilman Shepherd admired the small footprint of the unit. “It’s not a big building,” he said.

There will be hand sanitation inside, and hand washing outside, Mr. Card said, and it will be open all year because it will be heated.

“I don’t know about the seat,” Mr. Card added.