PORT ANGELES — City officials will consider a pilot project introducing standalone restrooms that could be kept open 24 hours a day.
Port Angeles Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat told the City Council last week that the Portland Loo is graffiti-proof and effective in deterring illicit activity.
“They’re very private, but at the same time they’re easy for people to see when someone’s in there,” Delikat said in a special meeting Tuesday.
“At night, it actually lights up so you know someone’s in there until they come out.”
If the pilot project is approved by the City Council and Clallam Transit board, the Portland Loos would be placed at The Gateway transit center on the sidewalk between Front Street and Railroad Avenue and be open 24 hours a day.
“After two hours on the Strait Shot (bus) on Sunday, it would have been nice to have a restroom right there,” Ingrid Carmean of Port Angeles told the City Council during a comment period Tuesday.
“This is an issue not only for the homeless, but also for the tourists here in town.”
The council will consider funding public restrooms when it adopts a Capital Facilities Plan after public hearings June 4 and June 18.
The council will discuss the Capital Facilities Plan and six-year Transportation Improvement Plan in another special meeting Tuesday.
Port Angeles has 51 public restrooms in 14 parks and other facilities.
About a quarter of the restrooms are in 50- to 55-year-old cinder block structures that need to be replaced, Delikat said.
City restrooms are generally open from dawn to dusk every day except Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. They were closed July 4 about 10 years ago when 19 toilets were “blown up” by revelers, Delikat said.
Last January, City Council member Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin suggested that the city incorporate new design principles for its restrooms that would enable the city to keep them open 24 hours a day.
The lack of accessible public toilets has been reported as a major complaint of homeless people and of volunteers who clean human waste from areas in town.
“There’s absolutely a need for 24-hour restrooms,” Delikat said Tuesday.
New designs for public restrooms include single-door, direct-entry unisex stalls in highly-visible locations to provide natural surveillance by the community.
“The goal of public restrooms is to have a place where people can go to the bathroom without also having it be a place where people could do non-bathroom business,” Schromen-Wawrin said.
“So I really appreciate looking at these considerations.”
After 12 years with no dedicated funding for restrooms, the Port Angeles City Council in 2017 agreed to budget $75,000 per year for a 10-year restroom replacement program.
“After this year’s CFP (Capital Facilities Plan) is approved, we’ll have $150,000 and we’ll start looking at a construction project,” Delikat said.
One such project would be a pilot with Clallam Transit to install two Portland Loos at The Gateway transit center downtown, Delikat said.
Clallam Transit owns The Gateway and the city maintains the pavilion and two public restrooms there.
Portland Loos and the more common pre-cast concrete restrooms each cost about $100,000 and another $20,000 to $30,000 to install, Delikat said.
The existing restrooms at the Gateway were remodeled because of vandalism in 2010, 2012 and 2016, Delikat said.
They would be available to Clallam Transit employees and open to the public during such events as the Farmers Market and Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival if the pilot project is approved.
“I’m supportive of the idea,” Kevin Gallacci, Clallam Transit general manager, said Friday.
“We’ve had a bit of vandalism and other things going on in the restrooms other than what the intended purposes are. I think it’s a worthwhile project to look into.”
Gallacci said he planned to make a presentation about the restrooms in an upcoming Clallam Transit board meeting.
“We want our customers and the public to have somewhere safe to use the restroom,” Gallacci said in a telephone interview.
Portland Loos are easy to maintain and winterized with heated coils around the toilet, Delikat said.
They were designed by Portland city workers and first installed in 2008.
“They’re very durable,” Delikat said.
The city of Port Angeles spends about $60,000 per year on restroom maintenance, Delikat said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
