Suffolk adding electric hookups at campsites, as RVs roll in with TVs, appliances 

Pressure cookers, hair dryers, even big-screen TVs — the accessories for modern campers have expanded way past a mess kit and an A-frame tent.

To accommodate the increased number of RVs on the road and a pandemic-driven rise in camping, Suffolk County is moving to boost the number of campsites with electric hookups, which allow campers to plug motor homes and trailers directly into the grid.

Those new to camping, and even those who have slept in the great outdoors for decades, are increasingly more apt to want to camp in comfort, officials and campers said. And few can go more than a day without an outlet to charge their phones.

David Lipman, president of the Suffolk Committee for Camping, an advocacy group, said his organization has lobbied the county to expand the number of electric sites for nearly two decades.

“It's something that's becoming more and more necessary — electric is just creature comforts," Lipman told Newsday.

"You want to plug the coffee pot and you want to be able to do air conditioning during the heat of the summer," Lipman said.

The Suffolk County Parks Department operates 181 electrified campsites at Smith Point County Park in Shirley; 37 sites at Indian Island County Park in Riverhead; 51 at Southaven County Park Campground in Shirley; and 10 at Cathedral Pines County Park in Middle Island.

The department is embarking on a 5- to 10-year plan to install electric hookups at other county parks, officials said. Southaven is first on the list, with new sites coming in 2023.

Electrification is planned for Cedar Point County Park in East Hampton in 2024, with more such improvements slated for Indian Island, Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown and Sears Bellows County Park in Hampton Bays in future years.

“The public's idea of camping has changed,” Suffolk County Parks Commissioner Jason Smagin told Newsday.

“We've seen the interest in glamping and the emphasis on being comfortable," Smagin said. "Beyond that, you also have individuals who want the ability to be able to work while being at the campgrounds.”

Electric sites at Suffolk parks cost $4 more per night than nonelectric sites to cover the cost of electricity, Smagin said.

Days of sleeping on ground over

Irene Grefe Bauer and Bruce Bauer of Westbury wheeled their 27-foot Keystone Cougar into their ocean view site at Smith Point in September.

The couple had camped in tents for years — Grefe Bauer said she even has shampooed her hair in a lake — but now that the kids are grown, the days of sleeping on the ground are over.

“I’m 60-something years old and I have bad knees,” said Grefe Bauer, who works for the Federal Aviation Administration. “I like glamping.”

Their Cougar has a king-size bed and a pair of recliners facing a mounted television.

“It’s not roughing it, that’s for sure,” said Bruce Bauer, an electrical engineering director.

The county parks department has requested $5.6 million from the county's capital budget that would be spent between 2023 and 2027 to build out campsites with electric hookups, according to the county Budget Review Office’s 2023 capital budget report.

Neither New York State nor Nassau County campgrounds are expanding electrical hookups, officials said.

Nassau offers 52 campsites with electric service at Battle Row Campground in Old Bethpage, and 74 at Nickerson Beach Campground in Lido Beach.

New York State has 80 sites with electric connection at Wildwood State Park in Wading River.

While many RV owners have gasoline-powered generators to provide electricity, a hookup at a municipal park typically delivers power more cheaply and doesn’t run afoul of noise ordinances.

Popularity rose during COVID-19

The popularity of RV camping rose dramatically during the toughest stretches of the COVID-19 pandemic as people sought safe ways to vacation and be with friends and family, according to county data.

Reservations at Suffolk County parks rose from 19,878 in 2019 to 23,048 in 2021, a 16% increase, according to parks department data.

That was in line with national trends.

In 2021, there were 57 million American and Canadian households that camp, compared with 42 million in 2019, according to a 2022 study by Kampgrounds of America, a private company that operates more than 500 campgrounds in North America.

The number of RV'ing households rose from 11.3 million to 14.8 million during the period.

More campers also are working during their trips — 46% in 2021 compared with 37% in 2019, according to the study.

David Keller, 61, and his wife Wilma Grootendorst, 62, sold their home in Ronkonkoma in October 2021 and live full time in their 38-foot Gulfstream Sun Voyager motor home with their two cats and 11-year-old puggle, Snoopy.

Keller, a retired carpenter who collects disability payments, said he and his wife are among many couples and families who choose to live in their RVs because the $500 in monthly camping fees are cheaper than the cost of a Long Island mortgage and property taxes.

The couple, interviewed Nov. 17 at Cathedral Pines in Middle Island, moves every week because Suffolk has a seven-day limit for campers at all parks.

“If I still owned a house, it would be a huge [financial] strain,” Keller said. “I’ve always enjoyed camping. I can live this way, no problem.”

In Suffolk, the bulk of reservations come during the summer when all county campgrounds are open.

Typically, only two parks are open during the winter. This year, they are Cathedral Pines and Indian Island.

Lipman noted that Suffolk campers often face tough competition in trying to secure electrified sites.

Some of the most popular ones are reserved six months in advance, the earliest the county’s reservation system allows, Lipman said.

Camper Jeannie Cottrell said the popularity of electrified sites is easy to explain: They can represent an affordable alternative for an oceanfront vacation. 

Cottrell, of Guilford, Connecticut, and a former Hampton Bays resident, bought a 23-foot Forest River trailer for her 60th birthday.

On one gorgeous day in September, old neighbors stopped by her site in Smith Point for lunch at a table set with fresh-cut hydrangeas and sunflowers.

“I can do anything in my camper that I do at home,” Cottrell said. "My camper is air conditioned and it's heated so I can go anytime here. I can do anything in my camper. It's really like being home.”

She continued: “It's like a little cottage on wheels.”

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.