by Tom Chillemi –
Should the restrooms at the Urbanna Town Marina be open to the public during the Urbanna Oyster Festival? That question has been raised by transient boaters who docked at the town marina during the most recent Oyster Festival.
All of the approximate 20 slip renters signed a written petition asking the Urbanna Town Council to reconsider having the bathrooms open to the public during the festival.
The petition, which arrived at the town office on the Monday after the Oyster Festival, was shared to council at its November 14 meeting and, after a brief discussion, the matter was placed on the agenda for council’s November 21 public meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.
The petition noted the slip renters paid $450 to dock for the festival and stated, “There is a safety concern especially at night as there aren’t locks on the showers.”
Further, the petitioners noted, “There are adequate port-a-potties on site for the public to use. The two-stall [marina] facilities are not adequate to support the volume of traffic, and supplies ran out after the staff had left and the office was closed, leaving the paying slip holders without paper products. The bathrooms become quite trashed when this happens.”
Issue
Town administrator Holly Gailey told council, “We have people who pay $450 to stay at our marina and we can’t promise them privacy—and that is a big issue because that is a lot of money and they feel like, ‘What did I pay for?’ ”
The marina restrooms were closed for years to the public at all times and a port-a-potty was placed at the marina entrance. Recently, council opened the restroom for public use. Council’s policy had been that boaters wanted clean, private facilities and reserving them only for boaters was one way to do this.
This fact riled up council member Larry Chowning. “I thought it was horrible that [for years] the town fathers had it so that those bathrooms could not be used by the folks in town that paid for them.”
Chowning was adamant the restrooms should be open to the public for the festival, and boaters should realize this.
Chowning said “everybody sacrifices” to make the Oyster Festival work.
Council member Barbara Hartley suggested a compromise. “We (the public) should have access to the bathrooms, but I think for Oyster Festival we could make an exception because we do have the port-a-potties there and these people do pay a lot of money to dock there.”
Lined up
Mayor Diane Gravatt said people were lining up to use the restrooms to avoid using the port-a-potties.
This is the first year the marina restrooms were open to the public during the Oyster Festival. Gailey said 100 rolls of toilet paper were used on Friday. “Luckily, I had another 96 rolls.”
Council member Boyd Wiley suggested having a portable bathroom brought in for boaters to use.
