Leak blamed for ballpark bathroom closure
UHRICHSVILLE (WJER) (May 20, 2024) – The restrooms at Uhrichsville’s Jackson Field are back open after some plumbing repairs.
Mayor Jim Zucal says it appears faulty toilets were responsible for the 23,000-gallon leak that the Twin City Water and Sewer District alerted the city about last week.
“I was told today, this afternoon – it’s 2 o’clock on Friday – that they’re fixed and ready to be used. If we have any other problems, we’ll notify the public. We also want the public to be courteous when they use our restrooms and not to clog those and waste or vandalize.”
Twin City Youth Baseball President Dave Mello says they were told Thursday afternoon that the city would be closing the restrooms and shutting off water to the concession stand, which was scheduled to undergo its final health inspection a couple of hours later.
“So we couldn’t generate revenue, and that’s what we were of the fear of. To pay for our umpires, to pay for the materials, to try to catch up on the bills that we are incurring, we are usually broke by the second week, third week of the season.”
A business wishing to remain anonymous provided a porta-john for the league to use in the meantime.
“But they were only able to give us one because that’s all that was still left in their yard to be delivered at that time of day.”
This happened less than a week after Mello publicly criticized city administrators for not addressing certain maintenance issues at the ballfields.
“Why have our parks not been mowed? Why do we as an organization have to mow outside the baseball field so our kids can play in the park properly? Why have the widow-makers in the trees not been taken care of that I brought to their attention on March 7th?”
Zucal denies that the shutoff was retaliatory.
“That’s absurd. This was a plumbing issue no different than you would have at home if your toilet was leaking.”
The mayor says they don’t intend to hold the league financially responsible for the leak and are doing their best to address Mello’s other concerns but have limited resources.
City workers had been filling the pools at the waterpark around the same time, but those lines are hooked up to a different meter.