AUGUSTA – There were plenty of jokes and snickers Tuesday when the Legislature’s Transportation Committee heard a pitch for building a bathroom at a rest area along Route 9 between Calais and Brewer.

A drive along the 90-mile road known as The Airline has precious few businesses at which one can make a pit stop, and fewer still that are open at night.

Though there are plenty of trees that might serve some just fine, that al fresco approach to relieving oneself doesn’t work when snowbanks line the road. Nor does it well work at night, or where there is only a shoulder to park on while 18-wheelers barrel by on the road.

After some initial joking, Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry, sponsor of LD 561, a resolve which calls on the Department of Transportation to establish restrooms on Route 9, ended the levity with a sobering story about his late father who was being treated in Bangor for prostate cancer.

“I can well remember the agony he suffered traveling that road knowing there was no place to stop,” Raye said, and the treatments necessitated more frequent stops than normal.

“It’s really not funny – it’s an indignity,” he said.

“This is a public health issue, this is a public safety issue,” Raye continued, and said the state should be ashamed of its efforts in providing for travelers’ restroom needs.

The state maintains a turn-out area in Township 30, about halfway along the road between Calais and Brewer, where a rudimentary privy had been located, he said.

“And rudimentary is a kind word for it,” Raye said.

When that facility was removed in 2005, the area became littered with the remnants left by people using the nearby woods – which offer little privacy, he said – as a bathroom.

Washington County has the highest percentage of elderly people among the state’s counties, Raye said. He has heard from many people who must travel from Washington County to Bangor for cancer treatments who need a bathroom stop along the way.

“It’s one of the most common complaints from constituents in Washington County. Countless people have raised this issue with me,” he said.

Raye also noted that with the county working to increase tourism, the lack of restroom facilities on the road is not welcoming for visitors.

But building bathrooms at the turnout would not come cheap, said Theresa Savoy, DOT’s legislative liaison.

DOT estimated a cost of $625,000 to build restrooms at the site, along with annual maintenance costs of $100,000, she said. Because of that cost, DOT opposes the request.

Raye challenged the cost estimate, and criticized DOT for including that figure in its response to the bill.

“It’s appalling that DOT would project such a ludicrous cost estimate,” he said.

Savoy countered that the estimate came from the actual cost of the recently completed bathrooms at the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge on U.S. Route 1 in Prospect.

The primitive facility that had been at the Route 9 turnout was vandalized, she said, and DOT has concluded bathroom facilities must be staffed around the clock.

“We really feel we would need 24-7 maintenance,” she said, which accounted for the $100,000 figure.

Committee Sen. Christine Savage, R-Union, asked Savoy to provide cost estimates of putting portable toilets at the site when the committee holds its work session on the bill at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 27.

Rep. William Browne, R-Vassalboro, suggested local Chambers of Commerce might participate with the state in establishing restrooms on Route 9.