Commissioners discuss public restroom options for Main Street
COSHOCTON – The Coshocton County Commissioners held a meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 8 to discuss public restroom options on Main Street. In attendance was Anne Cornell, director of the Pomerene Center for the Arts, Tiffany Swigert, executive director of the Coshocton Port Authority, Max Crown, safety-service director for the city of Coshocton, Gary Lowe, member of Our Town Coshocton, and Dave McVay, utilities director for Coshocton.
The county has been required to permanently close the restrooms in the courthouse to the public as of last spring. During that time, the commissioners have provided a portable restroom Friday night through Sunday night to meet the needs of people who attend functions on the courtsquare during those hours.
The commissioners are hoping to create a permanent public restroom at the artPARK space. John Cleek, CDC of Ohio, said that the funds may be available but would take at least two years to secure the funds for the project. Grant opportunities also may be available as a possible funding source.
Cornell said the best place to construct the permanent restrooms would be against the west side wall abutting the main street sidewalk.
McVay said that since the Park Hotel was located in that area, he assumes that water and sewer would be available. He located three sewer laterals, but they are all in front of the concrete stage area at the artPARK. The main line is located in the center of Main Street and a crew would need to do extensive excavation to get to the sewer laterals. The laterals are 10 to 12 feet deep in the ground. McVay asked if the restrooms could tie into an existing structure, which would eliminate the need for extensive excavation on Main Street.
“I think it would be nice to have a public restroom somewhere downtown for all the events we have, especially since we have the lighting of the courthouse now,” said Crown.
The commissioners were concerned about how to manage and maintain the restrooms because of the homeless situation in the city, especially in the artPARK area. The restrooms would have to be constructed with maintenance and cleaning in mind and would have set hours that they would be open.
The idea of having the restrooms located on the courtsquare itself was raised, but quickly dismissed because the courtsquare is listed on the national historical registry. It was also suggested that the commissioners could bring in a single unit just for weekend events, but the problem of transportation and maintenance was raised.
“I think to be friendly to all visitors of Coshocton, we need a permanent public restroom in the downtown area,” said Cornell.
Tammi Rogers, director of the Coshocton County Litter Prevention and Recycling Program, gave an update on the organization. She said that they had been working with the Ohio EPA and submitted a grant to pick up tires in the county barn. That has been approved and will be picked up at no cost sometime during the last two weeks of August. Currently, there are at least 650 tires located at the county barn. She also said that there is a teacher at Conesville Elementary who is interested in doing recycling at the school. She is hoping to place a roll-off at the elementary school.
Category: Government
