For the first time, a Petersburg Parks and Recreation-owned restroom at a local park will stay open all year long. Parks and Recreation board member Sarah Fine-Walsh and her husband, Petersburg Borough Assembly member Thomas Fine-Walsh, have pushed for more bathroom access for several years.
Thomas said they latched onto the idea during a spring outdoor music concert at Sandy Beach, when they found that all of the nearby restrooms were locked.
“We were kind of frustrated that there were no public restroom facilities at the event,” said Thomas. “Because when you ask all these people to come out and listen to your music, it’s nice to provide facilities. I think it sends a nice message to visitors that we care. I also like playing music and it’s important for me to have a nice kind of venue atmosphere for music events in town.”
Music prompted the Fine-Walshes to take up the bathroom cause. It also became the medium for their message, when they wrote a song about Petersburg’s bathroom situation. It’s called “The Bathroom Song,” and they’ve performed it all over Southeast with their psychedelic rock band, Del Gatto.
“It was just kind of a fun little ad-lib,” said Sarah. “But [the song] also really helped distill exactly what we want: it was not just bathrooms, but year-round bathrooms.”
The restroom on the west side of Sandy Beach Park is the only one that will stay open all year. The other two Parks and Recreation bathrooms will close in the fall. They’re located in the middle of Sandy Beach Park and at the Whale Observatory.
Thomas said he hopes that a proposed three percent bed tax increase could cover the maintenance and utilities costs associated with more year-round public bathrooms. The assembly approved the bed tax increase last month, and it will go to a public vote in October.
It will cost the department just under $4,000 to winterize the lone Sandy Beach restroom for year-round use.
Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the restroom that will remain open all year is the one on the west side of Sandy Beach Park, and not the one in the middle of it. Also, the borough’s bed tax increase will not go into effect unless it is approved by Petersburg voters in the October municipal election.
