Portable toilets installed at Foster Park
Feb. 17—Two portable toilets were installed at Foster Park in Clarkston on Friday morning after some unhoused residents started sleeping at the park following the closure of a homeless camp four days earlier.
The toilets will remain in the park until roughly April, when the city reopens its public restrooms, said Asotin County Public Health Director Brady Woodbury. The bathrooms at the park are old, he said, and the building that housed them was closed because it can't be winterized.
Woodbury said the portable toilets were installed after public health signed an agreement taking responsibility for any liability associated with them.
The city had declined for liability reasons to allow portable toilets at the previous homeless camp, which led to sanitation concerns.
"We didn't want to have the same thing happen at Foster Park as happened over at the encampment, and have human waste in buckets and things like that," Woodbury said.
Woodbury said a main liability concern from the city would be if drug users leave needles in the toilets. Woodbury said the health district will work with Quality Behavioral Health's Navigator Program to provide additional containers, as needed.
The portable toilets will be pumped weekly by staff from the rental company, Woodbury said. If staff members see needles, they've been instructed to walk away.
Woodbury said he plans to add signage instructing safe disposal of needles, with a warning that failing to adhere will result in the toilets not being serviced.
Woodbury estimated the cost for the toilets will be roughly $500 for the duration of their use, he said. The toilets will be paid for through emergency preparedness funds from Washington state.
"This is a really, really simple step," he said. "But I think it actually kind of is some signal that there might be some walls coming down. People can work together."
Sun may be contacted at rsun@lmtribune.com or on Twitter at @Rachel_M_Sun. This report is made in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting, the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
