By Cecilia Nasmith
In the week since Cobourg municipal staff were directed by council to prepare a report on port-a-potties to augment the two public-washroom sites available, one of the sites has closed.
Deputy Director of Community Services Teresa Behan said that, on Friday afternoon, the public restrooms at the Albert Street transit shelter – adjacent to the outdoor skating rink at Rotary Waterfront Park – had to be closed “due to various reasons,” and that the two port-a-potties that had been placed next to the shelter last year had been returned.
And Councillor Aaron Burchat made a motion at this week's council meeting to implement one of the options in the staff report to add six other port-a-potties – to place a pair of port-a-potties at the Lions Pavilion and the Cobourg Marina, as well as to bring back the pair that had been at the southwest corner of Victoria Hall from the time it closed in March 2020 until Dec. 1, 2021, when Victoria Hall reopened (it has subsequently closed again).
The waterfront port-a-potties will be in place until spring, when seasonal facilities in that area will reopen. They will be at Victoria Hall until such time as the hall reopens.
The estimated cost would be $11,820 per month plus HST. Burchat's motion that port-a-potty hours be extended from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at all four sites means additional staffing at $7,812 per month.
The report also suggests an additional $1,000 be set aside to cover the costs of any damages, based on such costs that were incurred in previous years.
The report added that the town spent $115,497.59 on port-a-potties in 2020 and $104,153.89 in 2021.
The report did not assign any costs to another item – the daily monitoring these sites will need from police and bylaw-enforcement officers, as they tend to be a site for drug activity and staff typically experience challenges when they lock up at the end of the day from people who want to stay inside the structures.
Behan said the transit shelter had been closed because of a staff safety issue, and that a similar decision had to be made last year. While staff on duty at the rink to ensure physical distancing and other COVID safety measures can close up the washrooms next to the transit shelter, she said other staff – in pairs for safety – would have to be called in to close the others.
Burchat's motion called for costs to be funded from the COVID-19 Safe Restart Government Funding that remains.
Deputy Mayor Suzanne Seguin added up the bill and asked treasurer Ian Davey if there was enough of that funding left.
“We had estimated, by the end of 2021, there would be $240,000 in that reserve. This will eat into that considerably over the next two or three months,” Davey said.
Depending on what happens with COVID, Seguin asked for a periodic update on this situation.
