Grey Highlands council has postponed a decision about providing year round portable toilets at local parks.
At its meeting on April 17, council chose to wait on their decision about having porta potties available at local parks 12 months of the year.
In March, council voted to request a staff report about the feasibility and costs of having portable toilets at municipal parks 12 months of the year.
Staff delivered a report that forecast an additional cost of $9,000 a year for 12-month portable toilets at the municipality’s 13 local parks. Several parks already have portable toilets 10 months of the year, while others just have the toilets available for six months of the year.
Portable toilets are located at the parks starting on May 1. With that date close by, council chose to defer a decision on the report until August in order to ponder the issue more.
Coun. Dan Wickens had brought the issue to council in March after the warm weather early in the year drew cyclists to Feversham, who found no public washroom facilities available.
“I think this is a good thing. With changing weather patterns, you never know what will be a beautiful day in February or an ice cold day in July,” said Wickens.
Other members of council expressed reservations about making an immediate decision to expand the port-a-potty service year round at all parks.
“I recognize some of these should have year round port-a-potties, maybe we need to look at some of these and pare them down,” said Coun. Tom Allwood.
Mayor Paul McQueen said he had trouble supporting the additional portable toilets due to financial reasons. The mayor noted that the additional $9,000 expense was not in the 2024 budget.
“We’re going to have a tough budget again next year,” said McQueen. “We need a lot more information on this before we make a decision as council.”
Coun. Paul Allen said with the toilets going in as usual on May 1, council could postpone a decision on going year round until later in the year.
