Inquirer: A guided tour of the RiverWalk facilities

OK, we've finally gotten the restrooms built under the Frank Martin Pedestrian Bridge. There was no ribbon cutting or even a ceremonial first flush, but they're open for business, so to speak.

I happen to think that's a good thing, because in places where you have a lot of people congregating, you need commodious accommodations. But I understand some people's objections.

A lot of people have griped about the price, $244,000, which seems like a lot for a couple of public restrooms. And it is. (Maybe we should call it the Royal Flush.)

But a huge chunk of the cost had little to do with the actual restrooms. It was for the necessary plumbing and other infrastructure that had to be built to accommodate them. But that's water down the bowl, so to speak.

And yeah, there are those who say you can build a pretty darn nice house for $244,000, and they're right. But if the Georgia Department of Transportation offered to build me a $244,000 house and then sell it to me for less than $30,000, I'd be all over that like the proverbial duck on the equally proverbial junebug.

But that's not why we're

here today. We're here not to praise the plush, spacious and well appointed new loo, but to shine a light on the facilities downstream.

I saw on a Facebook page called Columbus City: Issues and Discussions a post that had some terrible photos of the RiverWalk restroom near Woodruff Park. Actually, they were good pictures of a terrible situation. I won't describe the situation here because some of you might be eating breakfast, but trust me, it looks awful.

The post was dated Sept. 6, and I didn't see it until the 10th and then went to investigate it on the 11th. By that time, things were cleaned up which was fine with me.

A chunk of Formica was torn off a corner of the counter, but aside from that, it looked like a bathroom you'd see in most any bachelor's apartment. (The roll of toilet paper on the floor instead of the spool, for example.)

While I was in the neighborhood, I went upstream to see the new facilities, which looked as if they had yet to be used.

At both venues, I can only report on the men's rooms, of course. I wasn't about to ask one of the ladies in the newsroom, "Hey, want to walk down to the RiverWalk and check out the restrooms?"

Considering how (relatively) good the restrooms looked upon my visits and how bad the one looked in the Facebook post, maybe the city should heed the suggestion offered at Columbus Council Tuesday by Mayor Pro Tem Evelyn Turner Pugh.

"We spend all this money to build nice things and then somebody comes along and destroys it," Pugh said. "I just wish we would put some security cameras in place."

Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Inquirer: A guided tour of the RiverWalk facilities ."