“Comfort stations” needed on Fort Myers Beach

Author: Megan Contreras
Published:

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla.- Beachgoers are using front yards as their personal bathrooms! It’s your money and WINK News confirms plans to bring portable “comfort stations” to Fort Myers Beach. The problem is – while residents don’t want their yards used as a toilet, they won’t want a real toilet there either!

“We need some place to relieve ourselves!”

“I think you are asking a lot of a few people by putting these bathrooms in narrow spaces, so close to houses,” said homeowner, Bill Veach.   The reaction is mixed when it comes to bringing comfort stations to beach accesses on Fort Myers Beach.

“They are really toilets, you can call them gardens but no on is planting petunias in them,” said Veach.

This is a picture of what a comfort station would look like.

“The last effort was put a wrap on them, camouflage them, make them nice, but it isn’t flying,” said FMB Vice Mayor, Dan Andre.

It seems as if many of the tourists see a need for them, so they don’t have to leave the beach to find a toilet.

“It’s either the ocean or the bushes.”

“I don’t go to the beach, a lot of because we don’t have that offered.”

But homeowners don’t want a comfort station feet from their front door.

“If you can imagine getting your dream house, with everything and then, someone puts a bathroom 10 feet from your bedroom,” Veach told WINK News.

Jim Veach lives near the Connecticut Beach access, a spot that was looked at as a possible location. At first, he was neutral to the idea, but has since changed his mind.

“They are toilets, they smell like toilets.”

“We have a solution, we have a comfort station, but no body want’s it on their access, it’s the same ol’ nimby, not in my back yard!” said Andre.

The town has one comfort station and still needs to find a spot for two more at beach access spots. Each comfort station costs between $20 and $30,000.

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