Morris Street merchants anxious for restroom to reopen

The Morris Street restrooms open hours have been reduced since the first of the year, creating headaches for tourists and merchants alike. In response to the ongoing problem of “overnight camping, vandalism and loitering” the restroom, at Third Street, “is now locked from 3:30 p.m. to 7 a.m., weekends and holidays,” Public Works Director Brian Lease wrote that in his December summary report to Town Council. At the Jan 9 council meeting Lease’s focus was entirely on the three breaks in the town’s water main. Then he asked the mayor to declare a water emergency to expedite repairs getting made. No one brought up the reduced restroom hours.

The locked restrooms are a problem for tourists, who since Jan 2 have asked to use bathrooms at nearby merchants, primarily Mo’s. Sliders Cafe, and Pioneer Market. The merchants are bothered also. Business owner Mo Jensen, of Mo’s Eclectic Gifts and Apparel, had a particular problem: theft of a $35 sweater Saturday afternoon, Jan. 21, about 4:45 p.m. That was the result of her good deed of placing a note directing people to her store.

Her report: “There were so many people going over to the woman’s bathroom, I put a note on the woman’s bathroom saying ‘Mo’s has a bathroom next door.’ … I got ripped off because of my note; for sure it was a $35 sweater. Because of my being nice and letting people use my bathroom I got myself ripped off.” Her phone message ended “I also sent to public works that I could use some toilet paper and paper towels. Ha Ha.”

Barry Whipple, Pioneer Market manager, estimated that 40 people asked to use the store’s bathroom two Saturdays ago, when 27 teams were competing in a basketball tournament at the high school. “Thirty to 60 people come in on a weekend and 30 don’t buy anything. This is a tourist town all year round, not just in summertime,” he said. The store doesn’t have the capacity to be a public facility for that volume of people. “I am not the type of guy to tell customers ‘No.’ I am backed into a corner,” he said.

At Sliders Café, co-owners Tim Fisher and Pat compared the added cost in water and sewage usage with “a lot of people coming over here,” to the investment the town made in building the restroom. “It defeats the purpose,” Tim said. Both questioned the decision “Closed on weekends? Are you kidding me?” Tim asked, while Pat added “That makes no sense.”

Krista Sunday, at Vintage Market, named the problem and offered solutions. “It’s the same core group that vandalizes it. They’re there 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and that’s when they’re doing their heavy drinking and that’s the problem,” she said, along with drugs. She noted, as Mo Jensen had, that people crossed the street, scared and wanting to get away from them.

Sunday was as sympathetic to the vandalizers as she was to the property. “There is a large cost implied both in the monetary damages and the huge cost to human beings.” She cited the need for detox and rehabilitation programs and offered a solution brought up by another merchant: Token boxes, at least on the weekends, as at the Seattle bus station. Merchants might handle handing out tokens, which would be emptied out of the boxes and recycled, handed out over again.

Sunday made the point that “they do need a bathroom, but there has to be some accountability. You have to hold them accountable. There has to be a deterrent.”

Town Administrator Scott Thomas, in his first month on the job, is still learning his way around. He noted the past reduced hours, locking the restrooms for a period of time, stopped the problem. “That strikes me as booting the can down the road over and over again. Unfortunately, that is the best solution for the resources the town has,” he said. Thomas said he needed to discuss the issue with Brian Lease

Mayor Ramon Hayes took the long view to the vandalism “We go through this on a regular cycle,” he said, recalling the winter of 2013. A decision was made to have winter and summer hours. Hayes said public works staff will open the bathrooms in the morning, at 9 a.m. and fire department members would lock them at 6 p.m. “That seemed to work” he said, reducing vandalism that was costing tens of thousands of dollars.

Weekend hours are more tentative. The Town is contracting with a janitorial cleaning service for weekends. Hayes said that contract would be voted on by the town council Jan. 23 and in place this month. The restroom would also be a topic for the mayor’s roundtable.

“It’s a problem I want to solve,” Hayes said. “Closing at night and opening in the morning” has worked before. “There will not be a perfect solution. Nothing ever is,” he noted.