You helped save the trees in Thornwood Park. Now it's time to help preserve Thornwood Park even further by asking the Park District to vote "No!" to a permanent restroom in our beloved neighborhood park. They currently plan to vote "Yes".

The vote will occur next Monday, November 11, 2019, at the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting (6:30 pm at Village Hall) so please sign and forward to your friends and neighbors.

Here are our reasons for opposing a permanent restroom:

1. There was a restroom in Thornwood Park that had to be removed about 30 years ago due to vandalism. Given that we already witness nighttime activities in the park (e.g., broken bottles, fire works, vaping pods, etc.) we have concerns about a permanent, unsupervised structure that might invite more unwelcome behavior.

2. The current PortaPotty is mostly visited by non-park-users, specifically people driving by for their jobs (e.g., delivery, construction, etc.). Replacing a seasonal PortaPotty with a permanent restroom will only attract more non-park-users on an annual basis, to a park where we parents let our kids practice independence skills.

3. Installing an expensive structure that will require frequent cleaning and maintenance does not seem to be a fiscally responsible decision, given no demonstrated demand for this amenity, and in the presence of clear opposition from local neighbors.

4. We have previously asked for no above ground structures, in order to keep the park as-is. Due to the uncertain location of the pumping station, a restroom (and potential permanent generator) would be either in someone's backyard, across the street from someone's house, or will require a paved road through a baseball outfield and possibly the destruction of our beloved climbing trees.

5. We hope this decision can be delayed until the Park District has already installed permanent restrooms in other parks and has collected a year or two of data on restroom usage, appropriate and inappropriate. Thornwood Park is a delicate, neighborhood park, surrounded by close knit neighbors who have perhaps hundreds of years of collective wisdom about the park, and it seems that as much information as possible should be gathered before deciding to install an unwanted building in the park.

Thanks for your continued support to preserve Thornwood Park,

Colgate Street Neighborhood Association