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Schedule for Lake Cowichan’s public washrooms needs revamping: business owner

Beverly North of Ice Cream Impossible says business is bearing the burden of providing facilities.
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Lake Cowichan’s public washrooms are open every day during the summer and Monday to Friday in the fall. (Lexi Bainas/Gazette)

A letter saying the public washrooms in Lake Cowichan “are closed Friday at 4 p.m. and do not open until Monday morning” earned an explanation from Lake Cowichan officials.

Beverly North, owner of Ice Cream Impossible, wrote to the town in mid-September about what she saw as a problem.

“This year’s busy summer and busy weekends are great for business…We have tourists all weekend, and at a heavier volume than during the week. I understand that town public works sees to the locking, opening, and cleaning of these facilities. It is not working,” she said.

North also complained that “this puts the burden of washroom facilities on the business community and the visitors centre who have to bear the cost of this.”

When the letter appeared on the town council agenda, Lake Cowichan CAO Joe Fernandez was the first to jump on it, saying, “It was open seven days a week from the May long weekend, maintained, taken care of all summer.”

The practice of opening it early in the morning and closing it at dusk was kept up until Labour Day, he added.

Town works superintendent Nagi Rizk said that even after the tourist season, “It’s still open Monday to Friday, to 4 p.m. until freezing starts. Saywell and Central Parks’ [washrooms] are kept open till we see the use fall off. As long as they are used in winter, we keep them open from roughly 8:30 to 4. I think she is talking about the time past September.”

Coun. Carolyne Austin asked how the letter could be true if that is the case, because North mentions the problem going on for four or five years.

“She must mean after September,” Fernandez said.

“I know for a fact the washrooms were open all summer,” Rizk said.

Coun. Bob Day asked if the Chamber of Commerce could be informed of the schedule for the public washrooms.

Mayor Ross Forrest said the letter was not from the chamber but it couldn’t hurt to write to them with that information anyway.

He also said he was a little dismayed to see some inaccuracies in the letter, like North saying, “The town received a grant to provide these facilities and the agreement of the town was to maintain them. This is in fact not happening.”

Fernandez agreed with Forrest, saying, “The town just does this. We were not ordered to do so.”



lexi.bainas@cowichanvalleycitizen.com

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