What a Relief! New Restrooms at Holmdel Park

Rejoice! Beautiful new restrooms are finally open for business at Holmdel Park's Lodge building. The ladies room is lined in gleaming olive tiles, with lavender and blue accents. The men get navy blue and black. People visiting today found lots of room in the stalls. Magically self-flushing toilets. Nice, warm water in the fancy sinks. 

It was a yearlong wait during the renovation, and during that time dreaded portable potties were the only alternative. Patricia Brennan of Long Branch attended a weekly county rug hooking class at the Longstreet Farm activity center building, and said she had little choice but rough it in the cold outdoor privies, with their little stream of cold water for washing up. (The park's other facility, at the Forest Edge section,  was not walking distance.)

They watched the construction wistfully over the many months. "We were saying to each other, 'What are they putting in there? Bidets? Spas? Hot tubs?' " said Brennan.

Alas no. But there are hot air hand-blowers with the force of jet engines.

You can blame the delay on some alarm system work in the lodge that took longer than expected, said contractor John Epitropakis of Pakis Construction. He was on site today, overseeing some work on the lodge's door locks. As ladies gushed over the shiny new facilities at the sink inside ("Oh! It's just gorgeous!" said Jan Levitt of Monroe Township to her friend, over the blast of the hand blowers) Epitropakis proudly showed off some of the features of the $350,000 project paid for by the county Freeholders. Holmdel Park is run by the county park system. 

To replace the small, dark outdated bathrooms, the old kitchen in the lodge was removed and the space taken over. There are no doors on the mens or ladies room, but there are special walls for privacy. The outer rooms contain the Bradley sinks, with sensors to turn on the water, and automatic timed shut-off. There are lots of bathroom stalls (eight in the womens room), including ones for handicapped users and ambulatory users -- for someone with a walker, for example. Windows, high up, provide sunlight. 

Both the mens and ladies rooms have pull down tables for changing babies. 

Laila Conte of Florida was exiting the ladies room with her son, Codey, who is six. They were up, visiting New Jersey.  Like many moms, she does not send her little son into the men's room, and she appreciated the wider stalls. "I like these, they are roomier," she said

"Its a beautiful job, its nice looking," said an Old Bridge visitor, who asked we describe her by her first name, Susan. She noted that hinged stall doors barely reveal gaps, offering users more privacy. "I just hope the public keeps this as nice as they would their own home," she said.