Health board: Decorative port-a-potties can stay by driveway

WILLIAMSBURG, Mass. (AP) — The health board in a small Massachusetts town says it can’t order a resident to remove the port-a-potties flanking his driveway despite the objections of neighbors.

The toilets at Chris Duval’s Williamsburg home have been haphazardly spray-painted orange.

Duval tells The Daily Hampshire Gazette (http://bit.ly/2c2GQcB ) the toilets are “empty fiberglass shells” that he finds “decorative.”

The board on Monday took no action on the port-a-potties because the town has no bylaws regarding their regulation.

Opponents say the toilets are privies, and there’s a state law prohibiting them from being “located within 30 feet of any building used for sleeping or eating or any lot line or street.” But the town health agent found they don’t meet the state definition of a privy because, among other reasons, they’re not being used.

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Information from: Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Mass.), http://www.gazettenet.com