One fine mess, indeed, that we don’t need

We often receive letters and notes from readers pointing out something. It might be an upcoming event, it might be something that happened in their neighborhood, it might be a good deed at a business, and it might be a voice of concern about something they see as a problem that needs fixing.

With that introduction, let’s move on to the following letter we received via email this week:

Dear Mayor,

Early on 7/10/18 I wrote to you pointing out the appalling condition of the blue port-a-potty on Eiwa Street. Later that day I observed a TYRI Portable Toilets truck pull up and attend to the toilet. I don’t know if this was coincidental or if he was responding to the complaint. I observed the worker pump the toilet then shoot down the interior with a hose. As soon as he left I walked over to see what and how he did.

The interior was wet and had a mixed odor of air freshener and feces. The toilet seat STILL had a large splatter of feces on it, making it unusable still. There was still feces on the floor. The TYRI worker also threw out onto the shoulder of the roadway some shirts that were previously inside the unit and had feces on them.

See attached photos showing toilet seat, feces on the floor and feces soiled shirt on public roadway.

This “maintenance” is totally unacceptable. This toilet is no more usable than it was prior to being “cleaned” and on top of that now the public has to view this unsanitary eyesore of soiled shirts on public property.

Please remedy and reply.

For sake of not spoiling your day, we’re not going to show you the pictures that were sent along with the note and apologize for the description of the foul situation, but there’s no really nice way to put it. It is nothing short of disgusting.

Sadly, this isn’t just a one-day deal. This particular portable toilet has long been a mess. It’s been like this for months. It’s not new. Now if this happened to be in some far-off place where no one ever saw it, say at the landfill, perhaps that would be understandable as to why it’s still like that. And it is. A walk over on Thursday afternoon found it just as the writer described. The door, apparently broken, hangs open, just as it has for months. It is as crude and nasty as could be. No one in their right mind would even considering using it, much less even walk within a few feet of it. It’s that bad.

Since it’s unusable, we’re not sure why it’s there. Certainly no one waiting at the nearby bus stop would venture into it. It’s an eyesore, and that’s putting it nicely.

Sadly, it’s close to one of our most treasured buildings and a popular place among locals and visitors, the Kauai Museum, right across from the Historic County Building, where our elected leaders meet and where the Kauai Historical Society is housed. This is also the street where the King Kamehameha Day Parade passes by. It’s across from the lawn where Easter egg hunts are held. You get the idea. This isn’t exactly a location where something like this goes unnoticed. But somehow, it still sits there. Perhaps this reader’s objections are the first.

We assume there is a logical reason this portable toilet is left there, as it is, day after day. Certainly in the county’s $200-million-plus budget, it could find some money to do something about it. And to give the county credit, we think it does a good job cleaning the restrooms at Kealia Beach and others along Ke Ala Hele Makalae.

But this one portable on Eiwa Street, just as the writer put it, is an “unsanitary eyesore.” We recommend the county, as the writer asks, remedy this by either committing to cleaning up this unsightly mess on a regular basis or, better yet, just removing it. Take it away. We’re pretty sure no one will miss the sight, or the smell, of it.