County Vows to Repair and Keep Strand Bathrooms Cleaner

In response to a Patch story on disgusting public bathroom conditions in the beach cities, an LA County official in charge of overseeing the facilities acknowledged that his team must do a better job.

"We're trying to provide services to the community, but to an extent, we're missing the mark," said Kenneth Foreman, who oversees 52 bathrooms along the coast. "As we're finding out problems, we're trying to get them corrected."

Public bathrooms in disrepair were found in Manhattan Beach, and residents of Hermosa Beach have often encountered broken toilets and urinals inside the beach bathrooms in their city. A tour of the Strand bathrooms in Redondo Beach today, however, revealed clean and functioning facilities, and folks generally pleased with the upkeep.

"They normally keep 'em clean and sanitized pretty well," said Michael Venniro, who surfs regularly. "It'd be nice it they all had showers, but either way it's all good. There aren't too many less-than-to-be-desired types as far as not respecting what's here for them."

That's not the case in Manhattan Beach where residents say problems with public restrooms on the Strand have persisted for years.

Despite the county's recent budget cutbacks, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a federal economic stimulus bill, provided the county with money for temporary employment.

In August 2009, the county began hiring people through the Transitional Subsidized Employment program. Recently, 33 temporary workers have been brought on, and the department is still looking to employ more people before funds run out by Sept. 17.

Today, three to four more people were scheduled to be hired through the program will be joining maintenance crews that work in the Manhattan Beach locations, Foreman said.

The temporary employees—along with at least one permanent staff member—work in crews of three to six people, cleaning at 5 a.m., noon, 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., when the restrooms close. So far, the county does not have a plan to replace those temporary workers when their mid-day shifts are discontinued this fall.

"It's going to be difficult," Foreman said. "Fortunately, summer season will be over, and there will be winter-type activity. We'll be revisiting the issue."

"There's almost nothing more important than that (sanitation), when you talk about the disease and sickness and just for our good of the public," said Linda Blair, a Manhattan Beach resident unhappy with the conditions of the strand bathrooms in her city. "You shouldn't have to come out of a restroom feeling like you couldn't wash your hands off. Who knows what you're touching?"

Unlike the beach cities to the north, the public bathrooms along the Strand in Redondo Beach are outfitted with stainless steel toilets and urinals, which can withstand heavier amounts of wear and tear than porcelain.

In all the beach cities, stall doors are missing from many of the bathrooms.The county removed them after a woman sued Newport Beach and two companies in May for a fingertip injury related to a stall door.

Foreman said that new replacements for hinges and doors are scheduled, but he did not give a specific date.

Ed Pilolla contributed to this report.