Benton Harbor committee debates reopening park restrooms, weighing vandalism risk against ADA access

Benton Harbor’s Public Safety and Public Works Committee spent much of its July 8 meeting focused on access to restrooms at city parks, with multiple commissioners pressing staff to reopen facilities and improve cleanliness and safety.

"No bathroom, in my opinion, should be locked," said 4th Ward Commissioner Clark Griffin, arguing that locked facilities deny residents, including people with disabilities and children, basic access during hot weather and during summer activities.

City manager Mister Little and public works staff replied that vandalism has repeatedly made opening unworkable. Little said fixtures have been smashed, locks removed and, in one incident, a facility was set on fire, and that leaving restrooms open without supervision "is just asking for problems." He proposed a short-term strategy of rented porta-potties and assigning supervised attendants or older youth (18 and over) to provide oversight while staff pursues longer-term measures such as cameras funded from the general fund.

Commissioners asked for a concrete timeline and staffing plan. Staff said they were working with Michigan Works and local partners to identify "older mature kids" and supervisory personnel and hoped to have candidates identified within about a week but warned that programs have hour limits (some placements are restricted to four-hour days) and that weekend coverage remained unresolved. The city manager emphasized recurring constraints: "the lowest common denominator to all of this is money."

The committee also discussed equipment and service quality for rented porta-potties and the contractor obligations for cleaning. Commissioner Henry and others said some vendors had been unresponsive in past seasons; staff said the current contract requires weekly cleaning and adjustments were made this year to ensure vendors clean before major events.

On enforcement and prevention, commissioners urged using existing cameras and sharing equipment with partners such as Harbor Shores. Staff said federal and state grant rules sometimes prohibit placing cameras on parks with those funds and that any park-camera program would likely require general-fund investment.

The discussion produced several immediate directions: staff will pursue short-term supervised openings where feasible, continue recruiting supervised workers through Michigan Works and local coordinators, explore porta-potty and cleaning-contract improvements, and return with more detailed timelines and the names of supervisors and youth placements when available. Several commissioners asked staff to provide written details (including supervisors' names and the specific vandalism reports) before the full commission takes up the related grant and budget questions.