Thank party-poopers for bathroom business hours

In hopes of addressing reoccurring problems with La Conner’s public restrooms, fed-up town officials have made some changes.

New hours for the public restrooms on both Morris Street and First Street will be roughly 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week. The exact opening and closing times may vary up to an hour earlier, depending on when the Public Works department and the La Conner Fire Department are available to unlock and re-lock the facilities, said Public Works Director Brian Lease.

La Conner Town Administrator John Doyle said he hopes the changes will fix the potty problems. People were leaving them in a state “unusable to everyone else,” Doyle said politely, leaving much to the imagination.

In addition to the new hours, Doyle said there will be increased police patrols monitoring the area.

Officials are also planning to install motion-detecting lights around the outside of the facilities, hoping to deter outdoor mischief and “alternate toilet” users.

“We have to give the fire department a lot of credit for helping us — they volunteered,” Mayor Ramon Hayes said. He hopes the changes will curb a lot of the vandalism, he said, adding that this is just the first step they’re testing.

“But it’s not an issue that ever goes away completely — it’s not going to solve vandalism, not 100 percent,” he said.

Right now, there are portable outhouses by the facilities available for those caught with full bladders after hours, but only for a month as the town adjusts, Hayes said.

Public Works Director Lease said the outhouses have proved unpopular with the public and nearby businesses, even though they helped prevent problems.

“They do have a smell. It’s the chemicals they use — it’s got an odor nobody likes,” Lease said. “But I prefer to have them year-round, because nobody wants to hang out in the porta-potties.”

Lease said bathroom vandalism has always been an issue. He recalled one particularly bad incident when someone tore the sink out of the wall, ripped out stall doors and detached a toilet, causing about $6,000 in damages. Simply maintaining the bathrooms year-round can cost $43,000, Lease said, and vandalism adds to the expenses.

Prior to these new changes, the Public Works Department handled opening and closing the restrooms, typically from 7 or 8 a.m. in the morning to 3:30 p.m., Doyle said, and a lot of the bathroom messes were occurring in the early morning.

Lease said the problems depend on the weather and season — people tend to migrate to the bathrooms when it’s cold outside.

Hours for the public restrooms have been slowly diminishing over the years. At one time, the facilities were open 24-7. But privileges have been reduced yet again because of people unwilling to use them as intended.