One Whittier budget cut stalls

Think it's easy to make budget cuts? The Whittier City Council isn't finding it so. A proposal to save $74,347 by closing down rest rooms in 10 of the city's 14 parks was on Tuesday's City Council consent calendar. Well, the item was taken off for discussion and eventually put over for more study and information.

The plan is to close rest rooms at Central, Guirado, Kennedy, Laurel and J.G. Whittier parks permanently. Those at Joe Miller Field and Anaconda, Broadway, Lee Owens and Leffingwell parks would be open when school is out, during school breaks and major holidays. They would be closed when school is in session. Rest rooms would remain open at Michigan, Palm, Parnell and Penn parks.

But Council members weren't so sure this is a good cut."I have huge concerns about closing rest rooms," said Councilwoman Cathy Warner. Warner said while it's true many people using the parks live nearby, it isn't always easy to get back home in time.
"When you hang out with 3-year-olds, it won't work," she said. "You won't get back in time."

But Councilman Owen Newcomer said closing rest rooms -- while inconvenient -- is one way to save money. "Yes it is undesirable," Newcomer said. "Is it more undesirable than removing programs or making people pay prohibitively high fees for programs? I don't want to see keeping a bathroom open and getting rid of a program that brings people there."