While portable storage units have become very popular, the Lindenhurst Village Board voted recently to curtail their use to address issues of esthetics and safety. Photo by Lena Pennino A popular alternative to renting storage units, is to rent PODS — large trailers that sit in driveways. People then load them at their convenience, and later they are hauled away to homes or a special storage facility.

Standing 8-feet tall and sometimes 16-feet long, PODS are looked at as the ultimate convenience—or the ultimate eyesore.

On Sept. 16, the Lindenhurst Village Board passed a law that limits residents from keeping PODS (and other similar storage containers) in full view — in their driveways or front yards — for long periods of time. With this new law, people can use storage containers for 30 days. After that they must apply for a permit from the Village, and move the container behind the front line of the house.

"Originally, there were no laws about these PODS which were popping up all over the Village," said Mayor Thomas Brennan. "We had to get some kind of hold on these things. You can't let someone keep one in a driveway and have it there for years… People were leaving them there for months and months."

"We are trying to maintain a clean look," said Michael Lavorata, a Village Trustee. "These trailers are unsightly. Many people get permits to install nice sheds. Why should they go through all that work, while others rent these storage containers and just leave it in their driveways?"

The law applies to PODS— and all similar storage units such as by Pack-Rat and Go Mini's.

Since PODS founding in 1998, it "has seen tremendous growth from the standpoint of both the business and the geographic reach of the PODS network," explained Matt Tillotson, marketing program director for PODS. "And as long as we focus on taking great care of our customers and their belongings, we believe our largest growth still lies ahead."

In other board business:

•the Village is scheduled to replace the six tall lights at the Lindenhurst Village Marina.

"The ones we have there now have wooden bases, and with time, the wood rots," said Mayor Thomas Brennan. "They are working but the salt water has made the bases weak. They are all being replaced." The new ones will have metal bases.

The new lights — 19-feet tall — will cost $55,000. "Hopefully, they will last for the next 30 to 50 years," said the mayor. "Only Mother Nature will tell."

•The Village has been mending fences: literally.

A fence at Shore Road Park was fixed as part of the park's beautification for a new memorial soccer field there. The field will now be called John Kennedy Soccer Field — named for the founder and first president of the Lindenhurst Jr. Squires Soccer League. The Village also spruced up the park in other ways, adding a flagpole, planting grass and putting in a memorial rock.

Mayor Brennan attended the ceremony honoring John Kennedy, and said he was amazed at the number of people and former soccer players who showed up for the event Sept. 7.

"This man changed their lives through soccer," he said. "It was really beautiful."