Cedar Beach Parking lot – a dump for the Cornell Marine Center

Cornell's trash overflows onto public parking lot

The Cornell Marine Center at Cedar Beach is a valuable asset to Southold, providing educational and research facilities in marine biology.  The facility fronts on what used to be the creek entrance – now blocked by the decrepit parking lot for Cedar Beach Park.  The parking lot, owned and (not) maintained by the county, has been in deteriorating condition for two decades.  Its problems started a fourth of July 20+ years ago when fire departments from all around Suffolk County parked their fire trucks there following the Fourth of July parade through town.  As night fell each visiting fire company lit a small bonfire in the parking lot to cook hot dogs and toast marshmallows as they set off firecrackers and bottle rockets.  Each fire melted a pothole in the thin asphalt surface of the lot.  Over time these potholes grew and merged and today the whole parking lot is crumbling.

The Cornell Marine Center makes things worse by treating the parking lot as their private dump and storage area.

Meanwhile calls to Suffolk County to fix up and maintain Cedar Beach, particularly its parking lot, go unanswered.    The County did recently install a gate that they lock up at sundown, but that is the extent of improvements to this public beach.  Its neglect is a disgrace; can the Trustees or members of the Town Board bring pressure on Suffolk County and Cornell to clean up their act?

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