Mountain Metro Transit bus drivers bring concerns about lack of restrooms to city council

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Members of a union representing city bus drivers said that they are seeing more kidney and other health issues related to waiting too long to find easily-accessible public restrooms.

Union leaders brought their concerns to the City Council during the public comment segment of Tuesday's full meeting.

"Too little water intake, holding urine for two long.," said union leader Margie Sullivant. "Urinary tract and kidney infections, kidney failure and loss, and prostate issues. We mentioned these concerns in January and nothing has been done."

According to the union, the Downtown Transit Center's restrooms are often closed or unavailable for use because of damage -- despite the presence of security guards -- by transients and people experiencing homelessness using the restrooms for bathing or shaving.

The Transit Center bathrooms doors are now kept open when not being used, to allow closer monitoring by security guards.

The union said that finding a restroom along its routes is nearly impossible because public facilities are rarely available and businesses often keep their restrooms locked, require a code for entry or allow them to be used only by customers.

Council members looked at photos of past conditions at the Transit Center restrooms.

"I was just talking about this with Mountain Metropolitan Transit recently," said Council President Tom Strand. "On that day, the restrooms weren't as bad as I'm seeing here. But I'll look into it."

Elaine Sheridan, a spokesperson for MMT, said that she wasn't aware of possible health impacts but added the agency is working on solving the restroom problem.

"We have added security staff to the terminal," she said. "We've doubled the security staff, I believe. And we have also added longer hours to our janitorial service. "

Sheridan said that Transdev, the contractor providing MMT with its 155 bus drivers, is working with businesses to establish restroom locations along bus routes.

The Transit Center is owned by the city's Parking Enterprise and is leased to MMT; the center is open weekdays from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. and is closed on weekends.

Some bus drivers said that they're also concerned about the same meth contamination from illegal drug use that forced the closing of several area libraries recently; Sheridan said that MMT has yet to test its bathrooms for meth, but will conduct deep cleaning of them Saturday.

"And that's no April Fool's joke," she remarked.

Councilwoman Nancy Henjum said that the situation highlights an ongoing need for more public restrooms downtown; the Downtown Partnership recently echoed that need to the Council.

Britt Haley, director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, said that her department's master plan is currently evaluating the logistics of providing more public restrooms downtown -- currently, the only such facilities are at Acacia Park (only during warm weather) and in the Pioneers Museum.

"Maintenance, vandalism, and repairing damage are our biggest challenges," she said. "We've had self-cleaning restrooms at Bancroft Park for a few years and they seem to be doing well, but they're still vandalized occasionally and we have to close them while we wait for parts to arrive. Traditional restrooms at our newer parks are doing well."

Haley said that no funding currently exists for new restroom facilities, and there's no timetable for developing plans for them.

In a related matter, the union also revealed that plexiglass shields that were installed for drivers' protection during the COVID-19 pandemic were recently removed.

"We weren't give any notification and had no say in that," said Sharon Clements, another union leader. "Now, we're seeing more drivers infected with COVID, and not having the shields make us more vulnerable to being assaulted."

Sheridan said that the shields were removed because some drivers complained that the plexiglass caused a glare that interfered with driving, and added that she hasn't heard of a driver who got sick or was assaulted without the shields.

"We'll put them back as soon as we can sole the glare problem," she said.