By Staff
restroom sites
East end, west end
of parkway picked
as leading locations
By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Washington’s planning and development director will study two sites to determine if it’s feasible to build permanent restroom facilities at each one.
Bobby Roberson was instructed by the City Council on Monday to look at the west end of Stewart Parkway, where temporary restroom facilities have been in place for five years, and the east end of Stewart Parkway as possible sites for the permanent facilities. Mayor Judy Meier Jennette told Roberson to “get a sense of what we can build for $100,000,” the amount of grant funding the city expects to receive to help pay for the restrooms.
Placing permanent public restrooms somewhere along the waterfront is one of the city’s top priorities for the next two years. During its planning session in February, the council indicated it’s time for the city to replace the temporary restrooms at the west end of Stewart Parkway. Some of the restrooms are open to the public. Other restrooms and showers are open only to boaters who are using city docks.
On Monday, the council heard from a committee comprised of representatives from the city’s planning and parks-and-recreation departments, a downtown merchants’ group and Downtown Washington on the Waterfront. The committee has been working to identify possible sites for the permanent restrooms.
The committee identified seven potential sites for the permanent restroom facilities. In addition to the sites being evaluated by Roberson, five other options were identified. They include the following:
A majority of the committee supports building restrooms at the west end of Stewart Parkway where the temporary restrooms are located, DWOW President Ross Hamory told the council. Hamory said he prefers the restrooms be built at the east end of the parkway. That would allow the public to continue to use the existing restrooms at the west end while restrooms for the east end are being built, he said. Building new restrooms at the west end could mean loss of the existing restrooms while the new restrooms are being constructed, Hamory noted.
Mayor Pro Tempore Doug Mercer said he has a concern that the conversation about installing new restrooms on the waterfront moved from one facility to two facilities, then three facilities — one on each end of the waterfront and one in the middle. Mercer said he believes a “central facility would serve all our needs.”
There also was debate over whether only restrooms are needed or if a facility that included restrooms, showers, washers and dryers is needed to serve boaters who spend time in Washington. The city may build only a restroom facility at first, adding other amenities to that facility as demand dictates.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.