The Town of Goderich will be closing its public washrooms at 5 p.m. daily, until it can address what staff are calling increasing crime and disturbance rates.
Council was presented with a report last week recommending that parks staff manually close the facilities each evening, and reopen them at 7:30 a.m. the following day, to lower the number of issues reported.
Accessibility, Health and Safety Manager Michaela Johnston said there were 29 incidents reported in a two-week span from August 20 to September 4, including an overdose incident and a case of mischief in which an individual was arrested.
Previously, the doors automatically closed at 10 p.m., but staff say individuals found ways to gain access anyway.
Mayor Trevor Bazinet says it's an unfortunate but necessary move.
"We have to make sure that our staff are safe and the people that live in our community are safe," he said. "When it comes down to this, unfortunately we have an overdose in our washroom and unfortunately things are happening in our washrooms and we would all hate for something else to happen when we know that we can control this by closing them at 5. I don't like this one bit, but we have a responsibility to the people in our community to be able to provide safe public spaces."
The town has eight facilities located at Harbour Park, Victoria Park, Kingston Street, Main Beach, St. Christopher’s Beach, and Rotary Cove Beach.
The restrooms are closed over the winter, and council says during that time, it will consider options for how to address the issue moving forward.