East Lyme — The town intends to use a state grant as well as its own funds to install restrooms at Cini Park in Niantic — near the entrance to the boardwalk — by late spring or early summer.

First Selectman Mark Nickerson said the town has had a plan in place for a decade to develop the park and install restrooms there. The town applied for a Small Town Economic Assistance Program grant for the restrooms, but by the time the $500,000 grant was awarded in 2015, the town was facing revised flood zone requirements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A solution was to design the project as a portable restroom trailer, docked in a permanent ramp structure, so the town can tow out the bathroom facility and store it indoors during storms and the winter, Nickerson said. The facility will be wheelchair accessible.

The $500,000 state grant will pay for the installation of the sewer and water pipes and the decking and outdoor showers for the facility, he said. Another $70,000, planned to be paid by the town, will cover the cost of the trailer, as the state grant will not pay for temporary structures.

The town currently spends about $7,500 a year for porta-potties for the beach by Cini Park, Nickerson said.

At a town meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, at Town Hall, residents will vote on the town's plan to pay for the $70,000 trailer, among other things.

The town is proposing to pay half of the price from an account set aside for town projects and the other half through borrowing. Residents will vote on whether or not to approve transferring $35,000 from the town projects account to cover half the cost of the trailer. They also will vote on borrowing a total of $369,400, plus interest, over five years, to pay $35,000 for the other half of the trailer's cost and for items in the town's equipment acquisition plan. Those items include a middle-sized dump truck, a pickup truck for the Parks and Recreation Department and a flail mower that will be used to cut roadside grass and brush and improve visibility at intersections.

Nickerson said the town has a yearly vehicle replacement program, and while many items have been removed from its list, these items need to be purchased. He said the town plans to move the pickup truck currently used by the Parks and Recreation Department to the transfer station. The town will sell the transfer station's older pickup truck and the older dump truck.

At Wednesday's meeting, residents further will vote on whether or not to approve borrowing $480,735, plus interest, over five years, to pay for computers and smartboard equipment for the school district's annual computer replacement plan and to pay for part of a dehumidification system for the pool at East Lyme High School, according to the meeting's agenda.

Another town meeting is planned for next month to vote on the state grant for the Cini Park restrooms.

k.drelich@theday.com