After a lengthy discussion on everything from porta potties, to how far people are willing to walk to find a washroom, to signage, utility costs, lattice, green space and peeing in the bush, councillors decided to enter into a one-year lease agreement that will see the public washrooms, located in the Chamber of Commerce building adjacent to River Mill Park, remain open.
The whole bathroom debate came about as a result of the sale of the Chamber building to Coldwell Banker Thompson Real Estate. One of the conditions of the sale was that the Chamber’s contract with the Town with respect to the washrooms be terminated. The Town will receive approximately $69,500 from the Chamber to buy out that contract.
The new one-year lease with Coldwell Banker will cost $700 a month and the Town is responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the washrooms. Councillors chose not to accept the staff recommendation of a three-year lease at a cost of $500 a month.
Discussion centered primarily on whether or not it made sense to spend up to $8,400 a year on a lease for washrooms rather than invest in a more permanent solution.
If we are buying some time to investigate what the permanent solution is, and it sounds like we are agreeing that where those washrooms are now is not a permanent solution, if we are looking at putting something else somewhere that we would own, then we need to reconsider the amount of money we are spending on that one-year lease and consider a portable solution. For $1800 a season we could rent some porta potties and dress them up with some lattice versus getting into an agreement that is essentially a rental that doesn’t leave us with anything.Councillor Jonathan Wiebe
The idea of putting porta potties in River Mill Park seemed to give Councillor Brian Thompson cramps.
If we approve this we are putting porta potties in the jewel of our park system. I have a big problem when we have people coming into our town and we say to them, by the way here is a porta potty in our park.
Councillor Brian Thompson
The corner of our jewel of a park is being used by kids who can’t make it to the washroom, or don’t know that it is there. I don’t think that prolonging the inevitable by getting out of the lease of the washrooms is the way to go.
Councillor Jonathan Wiebe
In a recorded vote it was decided to enter into a one-year lease agreement with Coldwell Banker for the indoor washroom facility and direct staff to look for a long-term solution. Councillors Wiebe, Karin Terziano and Dan Armour voted against the one-year lease. Mayor Scott Aitchison declared a conflict before discussions started and removed himself from the meeting.
Other options presented in the staff report to Council were:
See this related story: Chamber building still for sale due to Town’s stance on washrooms and lease
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Brian Tapley says
If the town wants to put portable washrooms in the park, might I suggest the Scott Richmond company in Delhi ON.
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjxl57yisLMAhWGuB4KHSFvDdUQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scottrichmondltd.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNGbYljBcHBHi-8Zc0pR0as2-ea_6g
These people make pretty nice looking portable washrooms right here in Ontario, deliver them to high end golf courses. They don’t look like the traditional box and are pre-approved by MOE.
Maybe worth looking at. Just a thought.
Bill Paterson says
Obviously the town councilors objecting some sort of bathroom relief in River Mill Park have not spent much time in our beautiful park, at events, craft shows, Markets, Bath Tub derbies etc. etc. I have always been amazed that nothing has been available, when we have participated. In fact I was amazed that some sort of permanent washroom facility wasn’t built into the plans for the new concert stage. We do a lot of events (Painted Kids Face Painting) in downtown Huntsville and it seems other organizers can bring in Porta Potties with no objections but our town (which badly needs downtown events) leaves people no choices but the bushes or a long walk to the Chamber building if you are at an event in the park. We do events in Rosseau and Port Sydney where a beach/dock front facility is well used and makes using these park areas much more relaxing for visitors and locals. A future permanent structure would be best and would be money well spent but for this year, bring in some pink potties and help out the Hospital as well. I seriously doubt a person using a porta potty really thinks about the town being a porta potty town, rather, congratulate the town on having the common sense to make this available to town guests.