Sewall Maddocks Jr. has continued the tradition of gift giving, like his great uncle Luther and his great grandfather who built the Key Bank building, by constructing public restrooms on Granary Way in 1998 at an approximate cost of $25,000 for the use of the public as a good will gesture to help with the town's tourism industry.

For the past seven years, Maddocks, who said that he would continue to pay the insurance, property taxes and $1,000 electricity bill, has asked the town to take over and maintain the operation of the restrooms and has been repeatedly turned down by the board of selectmen who call the clearly marked public restrooms, supporting private enterprise.

At the board of selectmen's meeting on Monday, March 27, a decision was reached by the selectmen to approve the recommendation of the budget committee who voted to decline a written proposal presented by Maddocks.

The selectmen however made a motion which was approved to pay Maddocks $1,400 for supplies, a fraction of the $6,500 necessary to keep the restrooms in operation.

Kathleen Billis, a tenant of Maddocks' who owns a business on his property expressed her outrage saying, "Here is a situation where somebody, through civic responsibility and good will, has put public restrooms in a part of town where there are none.

"According to his statistics, there are 18,000 flushes in the women's room alone. There are a lot of people using them. They are clean, have baby-changing stations and are made for people with disabilities. All of that was taken into consideration. He did a lot of nice things for that area and as far as I can tell, it's not very well appreciated by this board or this budget committee. There are restaurants down there, you're trying to get the Opera House going, why in the world would you not encourage the public restroom there when the other one is always over used and dirty? People complain that they are inadequate and there is nothing in that part of town, unless restaurant owners are going to allow people to come in and use their restrooms, and many of them don't have wheelchair access."

Budget Committee member and business owner Gene Damon said that people would be welcome to use his restrooms in his restaurants.

Margaret Orne of Orne's Candy offered her remarks, "We, as a community, have extended our season significantly. There has been a lot of attention given to the coast and we, as a town welcoming people, have only two public restrooms.

"It is of no advantage to the Maddocks who took a structure that was in need and turned it into a nice building with a nice park with public restrooms. It is nothing but a win-win for the town. The 18,000 people would not be encouraged to plop down their kids and luggage to use Gene Damon's toilets and leave again.

"Maddocks' building is labeled as a public restroom and I don't understand why the town is throwing away this opportunity. As a bus guide I know that the first thing I do is show people where to go to bathroom. Fifty or 60 elderly people who arrive in the later season won't hike uphill to the town office to use the bathroom."

"He (Maddocks) doesn't want the money, he just wants the town to take over the maintenance of what is already benefiting them in the first place.

"We have encouraged our shops and restaurants to open earlier and stay open later in the year. We have more and more visitors all of the time. You can't think for one minute that the toilet facilities that were adequate ten years ago are adequate today. Because we have increased our visitor population, it only seems logical to me that we would have facilities in more than one or two locations.

"Out of his own good will, Sewall provided this service for our town and I think that it is a real slap in the face not to say thank you and give him some reasonable support in this. They make no economic gain on this. As a town, tourism is our business and therefore providing adequate bathrooms is a fundamental service. All of the budget committee articles were passed except Sewall's.

Only $5,000 out of a two million dollar budget, it just doesn't make sense to me."

Selectman Tom Carbone suggested that the town split the cost of the supplies for Sewall's rest rooms and also to provide the cleaning of the restrooms since they are cleaning the other restrooms in town but he was ignored by the board as they continued discussing other matters.

As of Tuesday, March 28, Maddocks called the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce requesting that the restrooms be taken off of the walking map. He is also strongly considering closing the restrooms due to the lack of support.