WOBURN - The city likely set itself up for a legal battle with the state plumbing board earlier this week when the City Council denied a $400,000 appropriation for a restroom facility at Connolly Stadium at Woburn High School.

With no discussion on Tuesday night, the Aldermen voted unanimously to deny the appropriation for the state-mandated restroom facility.

Earlier this month, the council's Finance Committee recommended that the funding request be approved.

In an interview on Thursday morning, Mayor Thomas McLaughlin declined to comment on how the city will address the bathroom issue, as he had yet to confer with attorneys from Kopelman & Paige.

"I have yet to discuss it with our city solicitor," said the mayor. "Until such time, I don't have any other comment."

McLaughlin had an inkling that the council would reject the appropriation after sitting in on committee meetings on Monday night. During that gathering, the Aldermen worried that the nationwide financial crisis will trickle down to the local level.

Some city officials have already received indications that local aid figures could be slashed this fiscal year, as the state is wrangling with an estimated $1 billion deficit.

"I think it's time for us to stop all appropriations ... put the brakes on everything for a 1-month period to see where we are when the dust settles," Alderman-at-large Paul Denaro suggested on Monday night. "I don't want to sound pessimistic, but this is going to get much, much worse than anything we've ever seen."

According to McLaughlin, while he understands the City Council's reluctance to foot the estimated $600,000 bill for the stadium toilets, this week's vote could have larger implications for the future use of the WMHS athletic complex.

In a separate interview this week, School Committee member Patricia Chisholm also predicted that the state plumbing board would view Tuesday's denial as a refusal on the part of city officials to comply with an order to place bathrooms at Connolly Stadium.

"We're going to have to go to court now," said Chisholm, when told that the council denied the funding. "One way or the other, we have to do something there."

"I understand why the council finds it so disagreeable to fund $600,000," McLaughlin commented. "But my concern is that there is a ruling by plumbing board which is enforceable."

In the summer of 2007, retired local Plumbing Inspector Jack Cavagnaro ruled that the city had to place restrooms at Connolly Stadium in order to comply with the state building code.

Several city consultants, including Tappe Architect representative Brooke Trivas, scoffed at that order, arguing that Cavagnaro wasn't properly interpreting building regulations.

The city then asked for the Mass. State Plumbing Board to weigh-in on the matter. The state officials upheld the local inspector's decision, agreeing that the city would need to have as many as 60 toilet fixtures.

Then in November of 2007, the city was granted a variance from the plumbing board that required Woburn to place 23 restroom stalls at the site. The city's Building Committee has already picked a site for the bathrooms nearby the Salem Street side of Connolly Stadium.

Trivas has also prepared preliminary drawings for the facility, which would be a pre-fabricated building.