Cheryl Kinnaman McCarthy was frustrated.
For the past several years the bathrooms at Compo Beach have been locked around 4 p.m. on the afternoon of the July 4th fireworks — by far, the biggest day of the year there.
After spending hours eating and drinking before the 9 p.m. show, thousands of people have waited in lines, for rows of porta-potties.
Portable toilets, ready for use last year. (Photo/Dan Woog)
It was a crappy situation.
“Among the masses are elderly, handicapped, and parents with young children,” Cheryl says.
“Sometimes a real bathroom with running water, lighting and room for several people to move around is needed.”
After several decades of fireworks, Cheryl’s mother did not want to go back this year — just because of the bathroom situation.
Cheryl understood the demands on Westport’s Parks & Recreation staff, to keep the bathrooms clean (and toilet papered) during the crush of users.
But, she wondered, couldn’t the policy be re-examined?
Earlier this week, Cheryl emailed Parks & Rec, Town Hall, and Westport PAL, the fireworks’ organizer. She copied “06880.” I followed up with a question to Parks & Rec.
Cheryl wasn’t holding her breath.
But — are you sitting down? — in less than 24 hours, we got a response.
Interim Parks & Rec director Rick Giunta wrote:
In the past, we’ve allowed the restrooms at the marina to remain open for the night of the fireworks.
However, in most recent years vandalism has become more prevalent and commonplace, forcing us to make the difficult decision to lock the permanent restroom facilities and supplement them with portable restrooms. Included with the portable restrooms were several handicap accessible units.
We do understand the frustration and inconvenience of not having the permanent facilities available during the largely attended event. However, the repairs were both time-consuming and very costly.
After consulting with operations manager Carmen Roda and parks superintendent Mike West, as a gesture of good faith and on a trial basis, for the night of the fireworks, we will allow access to the permanent restrooms located at the marina, as well as the restrooms located in the locker area.
Should there be any vandalism to these restroom facilities this year, we will revert back to portable facilities only for the fireworks event going forward.
Hopefully the vandalism phase has passed and we can all enjoy all of our wonderful facilities during these fun events going forward.
At a time when Westporters feel their voices are not always heard, this is great evidence that you can fight City Hall.
Or at least, get quick action from the new regime at Parks & Rec.
Kudos to Rick Giunta, Carm Roda, Mike West and anyone else who had a hand in hearing about a problem, discussing it, figuring out a solution, and explaining it clearly.
Now it’s up to all of us to respect the bathrooms, and make things easy for the great Parks & Rec maintenance staff.
It wouldn’t hurt to clean up after ourselves on the beach, too.
No s—.
A small bit of the tons of trash left after last year’s fireworks. (Photo/Totney Benson)
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