The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday will consider sending a $9 million bond question to voters in April, asking the to allow the city to build 18 or more public potties, at a cost of about $500,000 per unit. Property taxpayers would foot the bill.
The question came up last year, sponsored by Assembly Chairman Chris Constant and Assemblywomen Anna Brawley and Meg Zaletel. It was postponed until Tuesday’s meeting.
The bond question would also ask voters to increase the tax cap by about $540,000 to pay for the maintenance of the toilets, which would be modeled after a similar project in Portland, Ore. In that city, after the toilets were installed, every single unit had been vandalized or damaged in some way within the first few months.
Three years after the 130 toilets were installed in Portland, most have been removed due to vandalism and rising maintenance costs. Only about 16 remain, according to a Portland spokeswoman.
Critics say that as Anchorage Assembly models the city after Portland and Seattle, it may be replicating the costly experiment.
The Assembly meets Tuesday at 5 pm at the Loussac Library, on the corner of Denali Street and 36th Ave.
