Changes to public bathrooms in Mt. Angel leads to a stink

MT. ANGEL – For years, the public bathrooms in Mt. Angel were repeatedly abused.

People would sit in the bathrooms and charge their phone, leave behind used condoms and needles, even smear feces on the walls.

The city council decided to address the problem by tearing out the bathrooms and installing portable toilets.

It’s not popular with all of the town’s citizens.

“They’re disgusting and they’re disgusting. They’re totally disgusting,” Mt. Angel resident Mary Franklin said of the portable toilets. “People don’t want to use them, so what do they do? They go to the Glockenspiel (Restaurant) and use the bathrooms and they go to the sausage company and they use them. They try to be hospitable.

“They like to portray themselves as a welcoming community. Going to one of those port-a-potties is not welcoming.”

The bathrooms are in the small city park in the same block as Mt. Angel City Hall at the corner of Church and Cleveland streets.

The public bathrooms have been in place since at least the 1970s. They've been a problem for a long time.

Mt. Angel city manager Amber Mathiesen said public works employees would spend between six and 24 hours each week cleaning the bathrooms.

“We certainly had a number of instances where the toilets would be clogged with paper towels, sometimes articles of clothing,” Mathiesen said.

Mathiesen said the Mt. Angel City Council in April approved a staff recommendation to alter the public restrooms, and the project took place a few weeks into April.

The roof and all permanent fixtures in the building were removed. Two portable bathrooms were brought in and put in the remainder of the building.

“It allows for better cleaning,” Mathiesen said. “Port-a-potties are not as attractive to people hanging out in them. With the installation of the portable toilets, we’ve had no vandalism.”

Each year during Oktoberfest the bathrooms were closed as Oktoberfest Inc., provides portable bathrooms for the festival.

But there are many other events that bring visitors to town year-round such as group walkers, bicycle tours, motorcycle tours and car shows.

The public bathrooms are their main option.

“If you come down here en masse, you have to use the facilities,” Franklin said. “There are thousands of people who come down here.”

Franklin plans to present a proposal to rebuild the permanent bathroom at the Mt. Angel city council's Sept. 10 meeting, and she says she has support from dozens of fellow Mt. Angel citizens.

“I would like if they would go back to the old way,” said Raul Cazares, who has lived in Mt. Angel for five years. “This is messy. It stinks.”

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler