BRISTOL — This may come as a relief to users of the East Bay Bike Path.

The town is considering building public restrooms in the former pumping station at the end of Oliver Street, opposite the bike path.

“It’s something that we’re looking to do … that will benefit visitors to town,” Town Council chairman Kenneth A. Marshall said at the council meeting last night.

The town contacted the state Department of Environmental Management, which manages the bike path, to gauge its interest in the project. In a letter Marshall read aloud last night, DEM director W. Michael Sullivan said that the agency fully supports the proposal and could provide up to $75,000 through the Rhode Island Greenways Program.

Having restrooms open to bicycle riders, walkers and runners who use the 14-mile path would “surely be an advantage,” Sullivan wrote.

The town currently rents out the red-brick building that was once a municipal pump house. Town Administrator Diane Mederos and parks and recreation director Walter V. Burke put forward the idea of building public restrooms inside.

As part of the proposal to improve the area around the building, the town would also put up a “Welcome to Downtown Bristol” sign with the names of shops nearby, Burke said.

The plan was received favorably by the council. Its members said they’ll await word on further progress.

Councilor Halsey C. Herreshoff, however, was cautious in his support, saying that the facility needed to be properly cleaned and maintained.

“Let’s do it,” he said, “but let’s be very careful to manage it … so that it does not become an embarrassment to the town.”

The bike path, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, runs along a former railroad track from downtown Bristol to Providence.

The Rails to Trails Conservancy, a national nonprofit advocacy group, ranked the path hugging the eastern side of Narragansett Bay the fifth-busiest rail-trail in the country, with 1.1 million annual users.

In other news last night, the council said it will explore alternatives to having the high-speed ferry between Providence and Newport stop in Colt State Park.

The town had requested the state ferry service add the stop as a way to boost local tourism and offer commuters another way to get to Providence and Newport. But officials received word last week that the state pier in the park is too small for the ferry to use and the waters around it too shallow.

Herreshoff offered up use of the dock at the Herreshoff Marine Museum off Hope Street. With the water there 17 feet deep, it easily exceeds the 10-foot minimum depth the ferry needs.

The only question about docking there, at the southern end of the harbor, would be the detour the ferry would have to make around Poppasquash Point to reach it

“The little extra distance is justified,” Herreshoff said.

Councilors said they will talk to Sen. David Bates, R-Bristol, Barrington, who is working on the proposal, about the possibilities.

akuffner@projo.com