If you need to use the restroom at Burien parks during winter months, you may need to hold it until you get home.

Due to budget cuts, the Burien parks department closed down the restrooms of four parks in the area - Seahurst, Lake Burien, Jacob Ambaum and Chelsea - during the four-month period of November to February.

Steve Roemer, the city's parks operations manager, said the city has saved about $6,000 from the winter closure.

The closure was significant for Seahurst Park because the public restroom there had just opened in December of 2008. Roemer didn't have the exact figures available, but he estimated it cost around $700,000 to construct. He said that was a typical cost for building a restroom.

Roemer also said the city expects to make the closure a normal policy in order to save money and that complaints from the community were minimal.

He said during the closure, only one concern had been raised.

"Probably 95 percent of visitors are in (the parks) the other eight months that we chose not to do that closure," he said.

"But it didn't help that we had a mild winter," he added. "There were more people down there than we had anticipated."

Roemer said that if the city were to hear a substantial amount of complaints about the closures, then they would reconsider leaving the restrooms open year-round.

But as of now, "I'm not hearing any," he said.

He also said there would be exceptions made in particular cases.

"In late fall, we had a youth soccer group (using Chelsea Park) and we loaned them a key."

Roemer said that the parks department was willing to work with any sports teams or other big groups who had plans to be at any one of the four parks during the winter closure and arrange to have the restrooms open for their use, if necessary.

For more information about park closures, call the Burien Parks Department at 206-988-3700.