The following article appeared in the October 16 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
Able-bodied men who find themselves downtown with a full bladder will now be in the same boat as everyone else.
The city on Thursday morning removed the two pissoir units installed about seven weeks ago.
City councillors agreed in the summer to pay up to $8,400 for a pilot project to see whether the pissoirs would help to curb urination on public and private property in the core.
Sam Mattina, the city’s manager of roads and rights of way, explained council’s resolution pledged support for the program for eight weeks, or until the $8,400 was used “and we reached the maximum amount of funding, so that’s why we pulled it.
“We have enough information at this point without having it extended to eight weeks,” Mattina said.
Staff will report to council next month on the results of the pilot program “and then council will decide whether the program was a success,” Mattina said.
The city previously reported approximately 2,400 litres of urine were collected from the pissoirs’ collection tanks during the first three weeks of the pilot.
Coun. Ian Findlay, who championed the pilot, believes it was worth doing.
“I absolutely support the pilot project … and I think it was a valuable thing to undertake so the community would understand the need,” Findlay said. “The exercise has been well-worth the effort put into it.”
The pissoirs were criticized because their design meant they could only reasonably be used by able-bodied males. Findlay said any long-term solution to the downtown urination problem will have to address these concerns.
The councillor noted the city is facing a difficult budget process in 2010, but said he expects the civic square in front of City Hall to proceed next year because there is grant money allocated to it. That development will include change room facilities with washrooms “so it is my hope we will be able to make those accessible and gender-neutral and that they will be available for use after-hours,” Findlay said.
A new transit terminal expected to be built on Carden Street, east of Wyndham, could also have public washrooms that would be made available after-hours.
In the interim, officials hope those downtown patrons who have used the pissoirs will not revert to emptying their bladders in alleys and on storefronts.
“We’re obviously hoping people take a stewardship role and act responsibly in the downtown,” Findlay said.
And in case they don’t, the city recently obtained provincial approval to boost fines under its antifouling bylaw, from $200 to $300. With court costs, public emptying will now cost $365.