RIPON – Some of the public restrooms at the City of Ripon parks are finally getting much-needed work.

Elected leaders heard the update on the conditions of the park facilities Tuesday from Ted Johnston at the Ripon City Council meeting.

The public works director addressed the concerns of Renee Toledo, who spoke at the previous session on the poor conditions of the some facilities.

“During my inspection, I found that in fact some of the restrooms were in much-needed general maintenance,” said Johnston, who just directed a thorough cleaning of all park restrooms.

The work is expected to be completed by the end of the week. Cleaning has been scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with public works already short-staffed due to the recent budget cuts.

Toledo listed the Community Center as having one of the worse facilities.

Johnston agreed, adding that the restrooms and the upstairs observation booth have been in need of repair for years.

In fact, public works recently started renovations to the building. Included was removal of the roof structure.

Johnston recognized Better Built Truss Company for donating roof trusses and Landreth Roofing for providing the roofing material and installing the new roof on the building.

“The men’s restroom has been renovated by replacing the water damaged ceiling and replacing the antiquated toilet with new handicap accessible toilet with bars,” he said.

Johnston added, “A new urinal and sink were installed along with new light fixtures – the restroom was also given a fresh coat of paint.”

Plans call for much of the same type work to the women’s restroom, including a handicapped-accessible stall with new partition and replacing the existing toilets.

Work is also needed at Acacia Park, where the plumbing fixtures are the original enamel-coated steel continued to flake.

Johnston said that attempt to recoat the surface has been unsuccessful, in turn, causing the toilets to become permanently discolored.

New toilets and lavatories are currently on order and will be installed upon arrival, according to Johnson.

He said the skate park restroom is often vandalized with graffiti. The toilet seats there, although burnt, continue to be in use.

Councilmen Dean Uecker and Chuck Winn suggested the use of surveillance cameras at both the skate park and Acacia Park.

Winn asked, “Have we thought about closing down (the skate park restroom)?”

Johnston responded by saying, “They’ll just use one of the trees or the side of the building (to urinate).”

 He also sees this problem as possibly an ongoing issue.

In addition, Johnston indicated that public works will install hand sanitizer dispensers in all park facilities.

“Though it was not addressed, we are going to be installing toilet-seat cover dispensers in each of the restrooms,” he said.