When it comes to the University of Guelph’s homecoming weekend, a few things are certain.
There will be a big influx of former students looking to reconnect and celebrate.
On Saturday afternoon, there will be a big football game – this year, they’re hosting Western, with kickoff set for 1 p.m.
Later in the night, there will be a big party. Or a few dozen of them.
And after all of that, there will be a big group of people leaving the city’s bars at closing time.
All of them will have somewhere to go. And in another sense, all of them will have nowhere to go.
“We always know it’s an issue,” says Brenda Whiteside, the university’s associate vice-president of student affairs.
She’s referring, as most people reading this in Guelph may have already figured out, to public urination.
Already this month, Guelph Police have issued 25 tickets for public urination as part of Project Safe Semester – targeted patrols around the downtown entertainment district on busy nights.
Each ticket carries a $365 fine.
“There’s zero tolerance for that kind of activity,” says Chief Jeff DeRuyter. “Our citizens should not have to put up with that.”
Dino Scrementi knows the problem well. In the more than three decades he’s been operating Dino’s Athletic Depot, he’s spent countless Monday mornings cleaning up a mess left behind by someone looking for a place to relieve themselves.
“It would just sit right there and be a big puddle,” he says. “You saw the bubbles, like a frosty mug of root beer, and it’s actually urination.”
Things have gotten a little bit better for Scrementi since he moved his store a few years ago, but this month alone he’s had to clean up six of those messes left behind after the bars closed.
“I feel frustrated for the people who have to go, but common sense is common sense – do it before you leave a restaurant or bar,” he says.
Between the back-to-school season and homecoming, the problem is often worse in September.
That’s why portable toilets are set up in the downtown for five weeks every year, starting when students return to the city.
“When we’re down there, we do regularly tell people where the facilities are,” DeRuyter says.
The police chief says a more permanent solution would help mitigate the problem year-round, but at this point no such plan has been identified at this point.
In 2010, open-air urinals known as pissoirs were installed in the downtown as a pilot project.
Though they did reduce what some refer to as the city’s ‘number one problem,’ they were nixed because of concerns that they couldn’t be used by women or people with accessibility challenges.
Public urination won’t be the only thing police will be looking for this weekend.
DeRuyter says there will be “lots of officers out and about,” including extra officers who will be deployed to south-end neighbourhoods known to have higher volumes of parties and pedestrians.
“It’s a special day, but … we will enforce alcohol offences,” he says.
“Walking around with open alcohol, you’re going to see a $125 ticket.”
Police and university officials say they have the same message for people celebrating homecoming: Have fun, but stay safe.
With reporting by Alexandra Pinto
