Dripping Springs City Council talks downtown restroom facilities

DRIPPING SPRINGS — Installing restroom facilities in the Mercer Street Historic District was a hot topic during the April 16 Dripping Springs City Council meeting. The city council and Tax Increment Investment Zone (TIRZ) have budgeted up to $300,000 to construct downtown restrooms this year. This comes on the heels of some residents requesting that these facilities be installed. In her presentation to the council, city attorney Laura Mueller said that the city has obtained the property for permanent restrooms. The city is also drafting a Request for Proposal (either site-built or pre-fabricated/modular)  for construction, but also needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historical Preservation Commission, site plan from the planning department and wastewater coordination. “This will take some time, we are thinking about six months,” Mueller said. “While we are waiting, it has been encouraged for us to do temporary downtown bathrooms. We have looked at different types, where we would put these bathrooms, the cost and when we would actually try to get the temporary ones.” There are already more than 60 portable restrooms planned for the upcoming Founders Day weekend, held on April 26-28. Therefore, Mueller said that if the city council decided to move forward with implementing temporary restrooms, they would not be installed until after Founders Day. The options for temporary restroom facilities, as presented by Mueller, are listed below. • Portable Restrooms: $110 per month (weekly services) per restroom; $150 per month (weekly service) per ADA restroom. Purchasing a handwashing station would be recommended for $800 (could be reused for special events); renting is $125 per month • Trailer: $2,500-$4,000 per month, which typically includes two restrooms and handwashing stations • Air conditioned (electric hookup) • Sewer hookup • Water hookup • Buy a trailer for $100,000 • Staff maintains multiple times per day Potential locations for the temporary restrooms include property next to Vintage Soul — 302 Mercer Street — that the city obtained from Hays County and the Stephenson Building. “The only issue is when we are actually ready to construct or place the restrooms, we would have to move them,” Mueller said. “We looked at other places to put them, but we really want them to be somewhat visible from Mercer Street and not to be too far away, like if we put them at the city hall parking lot or something like that.” City staff recommended renting four portable restrooms — instead of going with the trailer option — for downtown and purchasing one handwashing station, while procuring and constructing the permanent option. “City staff’s recommendation is actually getting the portable restrooms instead of the trailer because of the intense amount of staff time and it doesn’t really meet the benefit to the point of how expensive those trailers are,” Mueller said. “The cost would be about $5,500 over six months. We already have in the budget for downtown restrooms and this would just be a small portion of that.” Though it was a presentation only, the agenda item was not left without discussion by the city council. Mayor Bill Foulds started off the discussion by stating that if they rented a handwashing station and it got damaged, it would get replaced. However, if the city decided to purchase one, he foresees a second handwashing station would need to be purchased following the first summer of use. On another point, council member Geoffrey Tahuahua questioned if the six-month timeline is accurate. “It’s aspirational. I think it’s possible. I don’t think it’s going to be before six months, but we have the property, we have renderings, we are getting that site surveyed right now [and] we are already working on the RFP to get both of those things. We are also looking to see if any of our cooperative purchasing programs actually will let us just buy the prefabricated modular [restrooms],” Mueller responded. “At that point, the only thing we would need to build would be the foundations, as well as making sure where the hookups would be for the electrical, water and sewer.” Council member Travis Crow said that he is “not sold on this yet” and he asked, as a business owner, if the city of Dripping Springs has enough foot traffic where residents and visitors can not use the restroom at the places where they are shopping. Mueller said that, along with Tom Crawford who has spoken during public comments on behalf of Vintage Soul, the visitors bureau has also received requests for installing restroom facilities downtown. Another council member, Sherrie Parks said that there are several business owners who just do not allow patrons to use their restrooms. Along the same lines, Tahuahua said that a lot of the businesses along Mercer Street are in older buildings that can not be retrofitted for ADA compliance: “If they did have a public restroom, they would be required to come up to that code.” Crow also added his concerns of maintenance for the temporary restrooms. “I’m worried about maintenance on it, what time they are closing and kids are going to get in there and do what kids do,” he said. “It’s sort of a burden on the city to have to be cleaning for [whatever] the time frame is. But if it’s what is needed, then so be it. I am one person up here out of five.” Echoing Tahuahua’s earlier sentiments, Foulds said that he is also concerned about the six-month timeline. “I don’t see how we can get this done in six months only because I have sat here for way too many years and nothing happens in six months,” he said. “These bathrooms have been asked for by me for four years and here we are, now we are suddenly getting them done in six months. I will be impressed, but I am concerned about that timeline.” The mayor also added, “Why spend the money on renting them? Let’s just go ahead, pull the trigger and get these things done?” Mueller said that the only reason why city staff brought the temporary solution to the council is because the continuous requests and the cost of those was low to the point that it wouldn’t affect the rest of the budget that has been set for downtown restrooms. No action was taken on having temporary restrooms following Founders Day weekend. However, the council will discuss the item again at a future meeting. To listen to the full discussion from the April 16 meeting, visit bit.ly/3QdAtDj .