Next for Sound View? Restrooms, please
With the 2015 summer beach season poised to become a memory, Old Lyme officials already are looking ahead to the summer of 2016. If plans for Sound View’s Hartford Avenue upgrades progress as expected, that’s when beachgoers should enjoy some long-anticipated improvements at the busy shorefront community.
Earlier this month, the Board of Selectmen decided to move ahead with the improvement plan that calls for wider sidewalks, new streetlights, a bicycle lane and reconfigured parking. The town will utilize a state transportation grant to reimburse $532,000 of the $751,000 total project cost. Officials will seek town meeting approval to fund the local costs.
While the selectmen made the correct decision to move forward with the project, it is extremely disappointing the much-needed improvements will not also encompass construction of permanent toilet facilities and a town green-type park. Both were originally included in the plans, but officials scrapped them because of higher-than-anticipated cost estimates and unforeseen construction requirements.
The price tag for improved sidewalks increased because the town must ensure the walkways are handicapped accessible. Administrative requirements for state inspections and fees also boosted the project’s bottom line. The town didn’t adequately anticipate the high cost of making restrooms flood and storm resistant nor that the transportation grant rules limited the amount of money that could be dedicated to toilet facilities to 10 percent of total project costs.
The 10 percent limit means the restrooms could have cost no more than about $75,000. The actual cost estimate to construct them, however, is $242,000.
Numerous local business owners and residents have repeatedly called for improved toilet facilities at Sound View. First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder said she agrees the busy Sound View beach area needs more pleasant and inviting restrooms than the portable toilets now in place. To her credit, she is pledging to find a way to construct them, potentially through full municipal funding, perhaps earmarking funds for that purpose over a several-year span.
It’s unfortunate that providing adequate public toilets continues to be a struggle in so many communities whose local economies rely heavily on visitors’ dollars. Who can forget that for many years downtown Mystic did not satisfy this basic human need despite being one of the state’s major tourist centers?
Sound View visitors will no doubt welcome a spruced up Hartford Avenue, but they also need assurances that the town will find a way to provide permanent bathrooms and, perhaps, a beachfront green and park, as soon as possible.
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