County to Cut Back on Beach Restroom Hours

The county's Department of Beaches and Harbors, which oversees two dozen beaches from Malibu to San Pedro, has announced plans to cut back on restroom hours and other services, due to budget constraints.

The shortened restroom hours are to begin May 1.

Under a new schedule, cleaning of beach restrooms will start at 7 a.m., which could mean that some restrooms may not open for use, year-round, until as late as 11 a.m., the department said in a statement. The later start time will allow crews to work further into the afternoon, when bathroom use is at its peak.

 In the winter, maintenance crews will only perform one "heavy" cleaning of the restrooms each day, the department said. Some Los Angeles County beach restrooms will be closed on weekdays and possibly some weekends, which has been the case in past winters.

The department has 45 of 58 budgeted maintenance worker positions filled and has 20 vacancies, said department spokeswoman Debbie Talbot on Tuesday. Over the past two years, Beaches and Harbors used 33 workers from the county's Transitional Subsidized Employment program that provided subsidized jobs for workers as part of the American Recovery Reinvestment Act of 2009. The program ended at the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2010, which also reduced beach cleaning staffing, Talbot said.

Beaches and Harbors maintains 52 restrooms and 36 parking lots and takes care of landscaping and trash removal at county beaches.

Volleyball net replacement, parking lot cleanup, weed abatement, landscaping and large-debris cleanup will occur only when daily staffing levels allow, the department said.

"The curtailments are due to the state’s historic budget crisis and the overall local economy severely hampering the department’s ability to sustain beach maintenance services provided in the past," the department said in a statement.

The department said it would post information on beach restroom closures on its Facebook and Twitter accounts.