Stonington ― The Board of Finance on Wednesday rejected the Borough’s request for $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Funds to partially fund the construction of two public restrooms in Wadawanuck Square.

The board rejected the request without a vote.

“The reason the ARPA funds are a no-go is two pronged. One is that we don’t have $100,000 available right now given the other projects we’ve got, and two, if you are looking for a grant they typically require matching funds, and ARPA funds don’t qualify as matching,” said Chairman Tim O’Brien after the meeting.

A brief discussion of the request by members determined there was a consensus that they would not consider using ARPA funds for the project but did say they would look at the availability of capital improvement funds when they begin discussions on the 2023-2024 budget.

The $100,000 request would have supplemented the $116,000 the borough has so far raised for the project, including $50,000 in Borough ARPA funds, and $66,000 raised by the Stonington Village Improvement Association and the Stonington Garden Club.

The cost of the project is estimated at $400,000.

“Our argument is that, even though the borough is a separate municipality, much of the traffic to businesses in our area— the restaurants, shops—are people from all over Stonington and all over the state and all over the country really,” said borough Warden Jeff Callahan after Wednesday’s meeting.

He added that in addition to businesses and the library being inundated with visitors asking to use their restrooms, some residents have even had strangers knock on their doors asking to use bathrooms.

“During Covid we all learned that public health—public sanitation-- is a pretty important thing to have,” Callahan earlier said on Tuesday, adding, “one of the long standing problems that our businesses have is that people will come into the borough and plan to spend a good part of the day, and they have to go to the bathroom, and they look around and there are no public restrooms, and they ask people in the shops if they can use their restroom. This came to a head during Covid when everyone was nervous about strangers coming in, and using the bathroom became a very touchy subject.”

Many business owners have long urged borough officials to create a public restroom for visitors, like those in Mystic, while 75% of borough residents in a survey favored the creation of public bathrooms, as did residents at a 2022 annual Borough Meeting.

After seeing the support, the borough formed a committee that studied the idea and then recommended proceeding with the project.

The plan, developed by local architect Julia Leeming, calls for placing the building with two unisex bathrooms with baby changing tables, water bottle filling station, and a maintenance room behind the rear of the Stonington Free Library at the north end of the square. The design is meant to blend in with those of St. Mary Church, the library and the post office across the street.

Callahan said grant options for the project had mostly been exhausted. The Borough has applied for bonding from the state, but Callahan said he was not optimistic about the Borough’s chances of receiving it, and the borough probably would not use local bonding for such a small project, likely opting for a bank loan.

“The financing is doable, I think. It would be nice if the town would chip in, because it’s used by everybody,” he said.

Additionally, he said that the borough’s nine years of payments for new firetrucks was ending this year, which would free up approximately $100,000 a year, making loan payments for the project feasible.

Callahan, who is not running for reelection, said that, though the borough charter does not require the Board of Warden and Burgesses to hold a public vote to approve accepting bonding or taking out a loan, he supports such a vote. Because a determination on bonding or town funding will most likely not be made until April, the next board, to be elected in May, will make that determination.