A large crowd gathered at Gyro Park on Canada Day. Downtown Penticton businesses want portable washrooms set up so visitors will go elsewhere for their sanitary needs.
(SHANNON QUESNEL / iNFOnews.ca)
July 03, 2013 - 2:06 PM
PENTICTON - New portable washrooms are expected to reduce the number of anxious visitors looking for the washrooms of downtown businesses.
Four new stalls will go to the Nanaimo Hall site, near the Urban Agricultural Society Gardens. The Downtown Penticton Association stated businesses have been asking for this solution. The association will pay for the maintenance costs and have them cleaned one or more times a week. The city has permanent washrooms in Gyro Park and in two locations north of the park along Okanagan Lake.
Coun. John Vassilaki is against the location. He'd prefer the portables be located behind Main Street businesses and accessed through the breezeways. Coun. Judy Sentes agreed.
"We need a temporary solution as we are getting peppered with emails," acting mayor Garry Litke said. Council agreed to revisit the issue next year.
Coun. Helena Konanz does not approve of the solution.
"I don't want to see ugly portables in our city," she said, adding city hall itself should be used as a tourism hub and offer its bathrooms to tourists.
To contact a reporter for this story, to send photos or videos, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065 or tweet @shannonquesnel1
News from © iNFOnews, 2013