Nearly Good to Go In Amagansett

Those in pressing need may still have a bit of a wait before that ceremonial first flush, but a public restroom for the Amagansett hamlet center appears to be nearing reality. Forget about helicopter noise — if the members of the East Hampton Town Board actually pull this off, they will go down in history. 

Amagansett business owners and shoppers have pressured officials for a place to go for what seems like forever. Efforts to build a facility there have gone on so long that headline writers hereabout have run out of potty-related puns to draw on for inspiration. Had you thought toilet humor was an inexhaustible font, you would have been wrong, apparently.

Earlier this month the town board agreed to pay a contractor roughly $329,000 to begin work on the Gansett privy. When all is said and done, the project will cost about $545,000, a jaw-dropping figure but money that will prove well spent, we believe.  Still left for the town to do is securing approval about the wastewater the restrooms will produce. We hope the Suffolk Department of Health Services puts its review on a fast track. We have all waited long enough.