By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Someone threw an explosive into one of the toilets at Erickson Playfield Wednesday and destroyed it, so the bathrooms are closed for repair.
That’s only one of what City officials are calling a rash of vandalism in public restrooms just since school got out.
Parks and Rec Director Corey Delikat says he had City workers in that same bathroom doing maintenance just minutes before the explosion.
“We were probably there for 2-3 hours yesterday and then, after they left, 20 minutes later we got a call about the explosion of the toilet. So, I believe we got hit again today at another restroom somewhere in town. I’m not sure where, but it’s one of those things that happens every year, and the reason why we close our restrooms at noon on the Fourth of July. Because, one year we had, I want to say between 14 to 17 toilets blown up. And so, that’s the reason why we do that on the Fourth of July.”
Portable toilets will be used in the park until repairs can be made. Coincidentally, Delikat says they were going to close those bathrooms for remodeling over the holiday weekend anyway while the Lincoln Park BMX folks do some repairs on the pump track, but that doesn’t excuse what has become an expensive, annual issue around the Fourth of July.