Parks flushes promises of fixed bathroom down the toilet

Back in April, Brooklyn Borough Parks Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey told this paper that the bathrooms at Bay 8^th Street playground, which have been out of order for the past 17 months, would be fixed by the end of June.

Not so fast.

According to a Parks Department employee, work crews arrived on Tuesday, July 9 and dug two holes on Bay 8^th Street, where the broken pipes are located. The next day, the holes were covered up and nothing has been done since.

“The back hoe is sitting there. They haven’t been back,” said the staffer, who wishes to remain anonymous. “So much for being ready by the end of June.”

The bathrooms, which not only accommodate those who come to the Bay 8^th Street playground but also the adjacent grilling area, the Ben Vitale ball fields and tennis courts, have been out of order since February 26, 2012.

When this paper caught up with Jeffrey, he said that there was a delay in repairs because it was a “much bigger job than any of us anticipated,” and that what was once just thought of as a local job is in fact a capital project.

In the meantime, park goers use one of the four Portosans to relieve themselves, but there is still no place to wash hands properly.

On July 4, we took a beating with the Portosans,” said the Parks employee, adding that the company which owns the portable toilets cleans them three times a week, meaning they remained dirty after Independence Day till the next scheduled cleanup.

During the past year and a half, thousands of local camps and sports leagues have been left high and dry without proper restroom facilities.

“We are at the point where we are all like, ‘Whatever it is, it is.’ We are all used to this by now,” said the staffer. “We are just fed up with it.”

The Parks Department did not respond to a request for comment.