By Thane Grauel
WESTPORT — It might not be the No. 1 crime committed in town over the weekend, but it was nervy.
Someone plopped a toilet down on the sidewalk of Riverside Avenue.
The white ceramic Crane Oxford, minus its tank, was hard to miss Sunday, perched prominently on the long stretch of sidewalk skirting an eastern edge of the Birchwood Country Club. It could be called vintage; the Crane name wasn’t used past 1984, when it merged with American Standard.
Toilets are sometimes illegally dumped because they’re not always easy to get rid of. Many transfer stations don’t take them because they’re ceramic.
Westport police said Sunday evening they didn’t believe the toilet had been reported yet. Asked if the town’s Public Works Department would have to haul it away, they said the state would have to do that because Riverside Avenue is a state road (Route 33).
It’s not the first unusual item dumped in the area recently. Just before Christmas, a 20-foot motorboat was dumped on the median of the Interstate 95 southbound Exit 17 ramp.
Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.
In other local news, Westport officials announced the installation of the town’s first “congestion comfort station”. Approximately one dozen more are planned for high traffic areas of town.
Morley Boyd,
That might be the funniest comment I have read this year .
Ciara
Update: The new high traffic comfort stations funded by the Connecticut Recovery Act Program (CRAP) will be tankless units that empty into underground sanitary systems.
Officials assure skeptics that odor control will not be an issue as the majority of the units will be installed in areas populated by residents whose waste doesn’t stink.
Update: after learning that a congestion comfort station was planned for the new Parker Harding Lot, the chair of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee (DPIC) issued a memorandum of concern regarding what he characterized as the station’s threat to public safety – adding that the congestion toilet was “an accident waiting to happen”. Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the administration stated that it was “greatly relieved” the congestion toilet safety issue had “been nipped in the bud”.
What town couldn’t use a think tank?