Contract dispute may close state park toilets

The grand opening of California’s La Purisima Mission State Historic Park visitors’ center may go off on schedule next month—but let’s hope no one has to go to the bathroom.

A contract dispute between the state Parks Department and the Mission Hills Community Services District has jeopardized sewer hookups for the new building. A lawyer for the District objected to two clauses in the state’s proposed contract on the grounds that they are illegal. The precise problems with the clauses have not been made public.

Mission La Purisima Concepción de Maria Santisima (“Immaculate Conception of St. Mary”) was founded in 1787 near the present town of Lompoc, California.