By Robert Shumskis, Standard Correspondent
A village privy in East Barnard is filling a need and leaving a legacy
East Barnard is a picturesque town with historic homes, lovely scenery, and a close-knit community, but it has a persistent problem: a shortage of public restrooms. Since late last year, resident Randy Leavitt has been volunteering his time to resolve this situation by custom-building a shelter for a composting toilet outside the East Barnard Church.
The church was built in 1834, but despite being one of the central public buildings in town, Leavitt says, “I don’t know the last time there was a privy outdoors, but I’ve lived in the village since I was an infant and I’m almost 70, and I don’t remember a privy. That means that once people go to church, they don’t have a bathroom. We have tens of church services there in the summer, we’ve had two memorial services, we’re having two weddings there this summer, and we have a pretty popular Christmas Eve service — but no bathroom.”
Realizing the need, Leavitt teamed up with his wife to pitch his idea to the town. “I suggested to the board — my wife Heather is on the board and has been for a long time — that we build a bathroom out back. I explained what it would look like, and I said that I’d be willing to do the work for free if they paid for the materials. So that’s what is happening.”
“I started designing it in the winter,” he recalls. “We dug holes in the ground for the pillars at the end of May. I would rather have started earlier so I could be farther along right now, and the weather’s been hot, so I haven’t been working full days. I didn’t go there all last week because I’m waiting for a load of materials. We are fundraising for the materials, and we’re about halfway to the $25,000 cost of the whole structure, including the ramp that leads to it from the existing access ramp. You’ll be able to roll a wheelchair right out of the church into this little building or down the ramp to your car. Full access is going to be sweet.”
At left, the privy begins to look more formal, with its completed stained glass mantel and a deck in progress. At right, Leavitt stands where he’s building the privy soon after he started construction last spring. Robert Shumskis Photos
Leavitt’s privy won’t just be functional — he hopes it will be beautiful too. “I am trying to build a building that is similar to the church; I’m not trying to copy it or make it look like a church, but I want it to have the 1834 mouldings, a white clapboarded building,” he clarifies. “For the inside, I already made a stained-glass window for it that’s very simple; it’s not like a religious thing, it’s just squares of colored glass. I got the glass from a yard sale, and it was in a broken window. I believe it’s from a similar period as the church. With that glass, I made a small window over the entrance. It’s only 10 feet square, but I’m trying to make it elegant inside and simple. I’m going to plaster the inside and there will be a chair rail, baseboards, and a composting toilet. We probably won’t even have to touch [the toilet] for a year because there will be so few people using it.”
Originally, Leavitt planned to have a porta-potty-type system with a tank that would be pumped as necessary. However, the more research he did into the composting system, he realized that it would smell a lot less because of the fan and the natural degradation. Eventually, the compost will become inert and can be used to mulch the trees and plants on the church property.
“If the composting part freezes, it just stops composting, but it doesn’t stop people being able to use it,” he says. “There’s a fan that will blow constantly through the system. You can use it year-round for sure. There’s no lock on the door; it will be open for anybody who passes by. That’s why I’m calling it the village privy instead of the church bathroom. There are a lot of hikers and bikers. The village of East Barnard is on a few maps that are popular for bike rides, and there are some hiking trails in the village, so there’s often people hanging around.”
“The composting system will arrive next week,” he continued. “The system is all underneath the building, but what you will see in the bathroom space is a porcelain toilet — it doesn’t look much different than a regular toilet, but there’s no water. Getting a water system means potable water and a septic, both of which would have cost us $40,000. For the minimal use, we couldn’t afford that.
“My goal is to have it done before the end of the building season, whenever that turns out to be,” he says hopefully. “I don’t feel like I want to get energized again next year for the same project. My goal right now is to finish the exterior, including some plantings, so it will be completely finished on the outside. Then I can do the inside, which is only 10 ft. square, so it won’t take long to finish the interior.”
Since beginning the construction, the need has become more apparent to Leavitt. “During that funeral service we had a couple weeks ago, there was a woman who had driven from somewhere. When she got to the church, I was helping to park cars. She asked me if there was a bathroom, and I told her there wasn’t one here, but you could use the one in the village at the Grange Hall. Then she asked me if there were stairs, and I said there were, so she said she would just have to wait. It’s always been an issue to not have a bathroom, but now that we’re building a bathroom, I see it much more clearly. It’s been a little rude to not have a facility all these years for people. I’m pretty excited about it. I’m retired, so it’s a fun project. I get to clapboard the building in a couple of days instead of spending three or four weeks doing it. It’s like building a dollhouse, in a way.”
Further, he sees the privy as a way to provide something important to the hometown that he holds so dear. “I have really deep connections [here]. I’ve been around the world, lived in different countries, different cities, and done different things, but I’ve always planned to come back to East Barnard. This is my way of giving back. That’s why I want it to last so long. I am taking my time to make it really good,” Leavitt concluded.