The restrooms at Riverside Gardens Park were apparently broken into, used and abused recently. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

One needed to get within only a few feet of the restrooms at Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park in recent days to become victim of a most egregious assault on the olfactories.

It’s difficult to describe the alien fetor, nor would it be appropriate here, just as it would be to describe what one would have seen upon entering the men’s room.

Suffice it to say that the the sticky floor was the least of it.

The ladies’ room wasn’t much better, according to a redbankgreen reader who alerted us to this situation late last week. She emailed to tell us she’d popped in to use the facilities while jogging, and was “appalled” by what she encountered:

I am an easy going person………to put it simply, it was truly DISGUSTING! It made NJ transit bathrooms look like the Ritz…

According to public works director Gary Watson, the mess wasn’t the result of lax maintenance but of vandalism. The restrooms were supposed to be locked for the winter, with the water supplies shut off, until the normal reopening on May 1, he said.

“That means there’s been some vandalism,” he said. “Somebody must’ve gotten in there.”

Watson said he received a phone message Friday from someone who said the bathrooms were in bad shape at Marine Park. But there are no bathrooms at Marine Park, so Watson said he was slightly confused. When redbankgreen alerted him to the mess at Riverside, he sent a DPW employee immediately to lock the door.

Watson said vandalism has occurred at the building before.

The building was secured by midday Tuesday. Watson said the public works crew will do its usual thorough scrubbing prior to the season opening.

Judging by the air that lingered outside, it’ll take one.