By Kacie Svoboda
At the Hill City Council meeting on Monday, May 11, Hill City business owners again turned out in force during the public comment period to keep pressure on the council to do something about the public bathrooms. At the last meeting, Lorena Freis of the Farmer’s Daughter had explained that she had stopped at the public restrooms in the alley behind Main Street and found them locked. With the days dwindling before the start of the summer season, Freis returned to ask about the state of the bathrooms and was joined again by Dawna Kruse of Holly House, as well as Pat Belczak of Hill City Antiques and Judy Walker of Stage Stop Leather.
In addition to adding her support to the bathroom issue, Kruse invited council members to attend the Hill City Area Chamber of Commerce meetings during the public comment time. Jim Peterson of Integrity Realty also stepped up for public comment, mentioning that the sale of some of the surrounding Forest Service land presented a good opportunity for a Tax Increment Financing district to provide water and sewer development before the increment increased.
In response to the bathroom issue, Mayor Dave Gray said when he was at the monthly mayors meeting, he polled the other mayors about how they handled their public restrooms. Out of the approximately six towns represented at the meeting, two utilized port-a-potties while the rest provided public restrooms. However, these public restrooms were only available in parks, chamber buildings and city halls. Gray did recognize that as these facilities are not located on Hill City’s Main Street, Hill City might require an alternate solution.
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