Flush with some new thoughts

Restrooms!

Now that I have your attention, today’s question: In the scheme of tourist things, how significant are clean restrooms?

The City of Crystal River wants to spend $350,000 for new restrooms at Hunter Springs Park, saying tourists are making a mess of things there.

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When the matter came up for discussion at the Tourist Development Council, one member made a keen observation: Cleanliness matters.

Is it possible, he wondered, that someone’s opinion of Citrus County rises or falls depending on the condition of a park restroom?

It was his contention that people will take numerous factors into hand when deciding whether to return. Unclean restrooms at public facilities, he said, could turn people off in ways we can’t even imagine.

Doesn’t have to be out-of-towners. Recently, a Pine Ridge couple visiting Fort Island Trail Park was disgusted by the condition of the restrooms there and said so in an email to commissioners.

“There has been a lot of discussion lately on who should pick up the tab on providing sufficient bathroom facilities in public places,” they wrote.

Referring to photos they took of the men’s and women’s restrooms at Fort Island Trail Park, they wrote: “We don’t think these conditions provide either a sanitary or a respectable condition for residents and tourists.

“We think you will ALL agree there needs to be some agreement between the City of Crystal River, the Tourism Development Council, and the Board of County Commissioners to fix these public restrooms, because residents and tourists all use them.”

The county agreed and is planning immediate repairs to the park restrooms.

I know, I know. With all we’ve got going on now, we’ve got to use boat ramp fees to spruce up restrooms? Well, yeah, right?

These folks have a point. Great boating facilities, nice dock, and a pleasant family fishing experience all goes for naught if the restrooms are filthy.

In other County Commission email news:

— I wouldn’t say they’re being hammered about it, but the smattering of emails I viewed this week suggest folks aren’t thrilled with the 3-2 vote for the 3-story storage facility behind the new Target in Lecanto.

I reviewed emails to Commissioners Holly Davis and Ruthie Davis Schlabach, who both voted in the majority.

“You can’t put lipstick on a pig. Since when does a storage facility in our area have to be 3 stories high?” one person wrote.

From another: “You completely missed the boat on your most recent vote to approve the facility. Another storage facility is the last thing we need in the area. Do you realize that the Rock-n-Roll bowling alley in Beverly Hills was recently turned into a storage facility? The area behind the Walgreens in Beverly Hills is now a new storage facility. So the area next to the Black Diamond development is a definite disaster.”

As Just Wright Citrus readers know, I don’t take sides in zoning cases. However, I’m a little concerned about two remarks Davis made in an email response to a citizen.

One: “I believe my colleagues came to the same reluctant conclusion as I, that it was not attractive to any other type of business as it was so out of sight lines, tucked into the back corner of the development.”

The other: “Those hearings come with a substantial legal framework in which we must make decisions.”

I’m not getting this “reluctant” vote thing. Either you like the project, or you don’t. Either it’s advantageous to Citrus County, or it’s not.

The “legal framework” remark is related to the first. Someone, not sure who, is browbeating some commissioners into thinking they need to approve these zoning cases so long as all the boxes are checked. As if to remove the public process altogether.

I don’t like it when politicians vote a certain way intimating that they had no choice. Own that vote!

That’s it for Tuesday. Enjoy it, friends.

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