By Stephanie Yost
Idyllwild Community Center President
Idyllwild Community Center (ICC) is pleased to announce the arrival of a second porta-potty at the Idyllwild Community Playground, which ICC operates. As with the current porta-potty, County Service Area (CSA) 36 funds covered the cost.
ICC is aware that the single porta-potty at the playground is often full, despite ICC staff and volunteers’ attempts to keep it clean. This problem is the result of numerous Hill visitors using the porta-potty since Idyllwild has no public restroom. The playground porta-potty’s intended users has always been playground users, not all community visitors.
The situation has been complicated by the fact that Diamond Environmental Services, which pumps and maintains the porta-potty, will only come up the Hill once per week, so adding a semiweekly pumping and cleaning is not an option.
The solution ICC has worked out with Riverside County (and importantly, with the help of District 3 Supervisor Chuck Washington’s office) is to add a second porta-potty to the playground using CSA 36 funds. The plan is for one of the units to be open Monday through Thursday, with the other unit open Friday through Sunday, so that the two units divide the usage.
Both units, American Disabilities Act approved, will be pumped Wednesday, Idyllwild’s regular maintenance day with Diamond Environmental Services.
Ultimately, the two porta-potties will be removed once the new ICC building, located to the left of the playground and including permanent outdoor restrooms, is completed.