Drivers cruising down Old Country Road in Riverhead ahead of what’s expected to be a sun-soaked weekend have been greeted by a hard-to-miss offer: free car washes.

Washville, a regional chain stretching from Maine to Long Island, opened in Riverhead on Monday and wasted little time announcing itself — with an orange inflatable tube man at the corner of Pulaski Street waving motorists toward a rare freebie.

On Thursday, cars were lined up at the three pay stations before rolling through the wash tunnel and into rows of free vacuum stations.

The opening week rush has required extra staffing to keep cars moving. Joe Santelli, Washville’s vice president of operations, was joined by Jamie Fall, a regional manager who came down from Maine to help with the extra business.

“I did 35,000 steps on Monday,” said Mr. Santelli, who lives in Smithtown, as he took a short break from directing customers into the proper lanes.

Launched in Blue Point nearly seven years ago, Washville now operates 28 locations overall, including eight on Long Island, according to Mr. Santelli.

“We’ve looked all over Long Island just for great spots,” he said. “We just knew this was an up-and-coming area.”

The Riverhead location had been in the works for years before Washville opened its doors. Mr. Santelli, 46, said the company acquired the project from a prior owner who had already started the approval process, then worked with the town as plans moved forward.

“The town’s been good,” he said. “Especially with car washes, towns get nervous because of the chemicals and stuff.”

The project nearly didn’t get off the ground, however, because of an unexpected visitor.

“There was a bird in a tree that we had to wait till the bird left,” he said.

Mr. Santelli said he has been around the car wash business since childhood. His family has been in the industry since 1965, and he remembers toweling off cars with his father when he was 10 years old.

After spending 19 years in operations management at HBO, he joined Washville shortly after the company opened its second location and worked his way up from the wash line to management.

Now with the site open, Mr. Santelli is expecting business to boom as the East End heads into one of its busiest stretches of the year. 

The Mattituck Lions Club Strawberry Festival is next week. Summer traffic is building. The busy corridor along Old Country Road is already packed with shoppers, restaurant-goers and visitors trying to knock out a few errands before heading farther east.

Mr. Santelli said that mix is exactly what made Riverhead attractive.

“We’re seeing customers who used to come to us in Westhampton Beach,” Mr. Santelli said. “This is where they shop.”

The free car wash offer will dry up after next Wednesday. The company also offers unlimited monthly memberships starting at $24.99, according to pricing posted at the location.

The post Running errands in Riverhead can include free car washes this weekend appeared first on The Suffolk Times.

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