Business owners would like to see a public restroom in the business district, but village officials say the price has to be right.
The base cost of a pre-cast concrete building is $13,000, but with unloading and installation of utilities, the overall price tag could be as high as $50,000. After hearing a Feb. 3 presentation about concrete restrooms from Tim Cantele, president of the Hudson-based Brick Tavern Concrete Products, Village Board members said they’d need a specific estimate of the total price tag.
Mayor William Murphy said he wasn’t sure if the restroom would be included in the 2014-15 budget, now in the works, and that he’d like to see businesses chip in for the structure.
For about a year, trustees have been looking for a location to put a public restroom that tourists could use, much like the one that is in the center of Woodstock. The location would be the municipal lot behind Mirabella’s on Partition St.
Village businesses and the Saugerties Area Chamber of Commerce support this because tourists who aren’t customers often ask to use their bathrooms. During warmer months, a number of businesses put up signs that say restrooms are for “customers only.”
Cantele explained that the 9×16 pre-cast building is all concrete, “so it’s durable.” The 18-ton empty shell of the building with no plumbing fixtures or electrical wiring has a base cost of $13,000. However, the village would have to hire a crane and operator to lift the building off the flatbed delivery truck and set it on its pad, Cantele said.
The base building would have room for one toilet on each side with a center utility room and would be ADA compliant.
Any extras, such as electrical wiring and plumbing fixtures, would be extra and could be supplied by his company or the village could have the work done.
Village officials after the meeting estimated the cost for the building and the addition of electrical work, plumbing, and hooking it up to nearby water and sewer lines at as much as $50,000.
While trustees expressed concerns about vandalism, graffiti and drug use at the facility, cost was the major issue.
“We’d like to see a cost estimate for the entire building,” Trustee Donald Hackett told Cantele.
“Yes, we’d like to see what the cost would be as a turn-key operation,” added Trustee Terry Parisian.
Cantele said he’d have a specific estimate to trustees in a few days.
“The cost is a factor,” Murphy said. “I’d like to see a partnership between the village, businesses and tourism to pay for it.”
Mike Flanigan of Flanigan’s Cleaners on Main St., who attended the meeting, said business owners support putting a restroom in the village. “It’s important to provide creature comforts for tourists.”
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