Kids, and maybe some adults, have been taking care of business in the bushes of a small but popular park in north DeKalb County that is without water — and therefore without working restrooms.
The potty woes at Ashford Park came to light last week when a representative of a local civic group addressed the County Commission, asking for a solution.
“We have kids peeing in the bushes,” said Jim Eyre, an officer with the Ashford Park Civic Association. “The weather is getting warmer and it’s getting busier, so the problem is just going to grow.”
The water was turned off within the past month when work crews at the three-acre park discovered a blocked sewer line from the main building.
Not having water wouldn’t be an issue at many county parks, since few offer public restrooms and the county closed those last year because of budget cuts.
But the lack of facilities at Ashford Park drew the notice of neighbors who last year raised $1,000 of their own money to clean the restrooms, keeping them open. Eyre said residents felt the county had let them down by not taking fast action this year.
The delay in getting the line fixed is a result of a back-and-forth among county departments, said Ted Rhinehart, the county’s deputy chief operating officer for infrastructure.
The Parks Department reported the problem to the county’s Facilities Department for repair. But both offices needed a hydraulic cleaner from the Watershed Management Department in order to jet the line and figure out the cause of the blockage.
“To the public, it might look like we’re not working together,” Rhinehart said. “But in this case, they all looked at it.”
The water had to be shut off because of a collapsed section of sewer pipe. The county is in the process of working with an on-call contractor and hoped to get the line fixed this weekend, Rhinehart said.
The restrooms remained closed Saturday morning as residents held their annual clean-up day, putting in fresh landscaping and edging weeds from park paths. A repair crew was at the park and hoped to fix the sewer line by the end of the day.
In the meantime, the county set up portable toilets.
Tim Nama, a resident whose 3-year-old son, Miller, plays at the park daily, said of the county response: “I think they handled it fine. They’re doing what they can.”
Of course, once the repairs were finished, the park restrooms were likely to need a bit of sprucing up.
Eyre said a woman came to the park with her daughter about two weeks ago who was determined to let the girl use the restroom even without water.
“We told her she wouldn’t be able to flush, but they went in anyway,” he said. “You can just imagine what that’s done.”
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