Council OKs $1.6 million for park restroom replacements
By Cameron Montemayor
Aging restroom facilities at several parks across St. Joseph will be overhauled after city council signed off on a $1.6 million construction contract this week.
Restrooms at Hyde Park, Corby Grove, Hochman Park and Eagles Complex will be demolished and replaced with new facilities in the same location. The supplemental Capital Improvements Program projects are some of the last remaining items from the 2019-24 CIP list.
St. Joseph Parks Director Chuck Kempf would like to see the project start as soon as scheduling allows. While an official start date has not been confirmed, the restroom projects could align with contracted renovations at Krug Park also approved by city council on Monday.
Larger components of Krug’s renovation project are expected to start spring of 2025.
“I know we’re going to do the renovations to the Krug castle restrooms as well, so the contractors may want to do those in conjunction with each other,” he said.
The project will see the traditional men’s and women’s restrooms replaced with unisex and family restrooms, with new layouts to improve disability access and the ease of maintaining and cleaning them.
Unsightly conditions and a foul odor inside the restroom at Corby Pond were nearly enough for St. Joseph resident and native John Spillman to reconsider using it on Thursday.
“Fixing the bathrooms and everything would be real nice,” said Spillman, a frequent fisher at the park. “I just came over from the bathroom and it’s nasty.”
Ensuring the facilities stay in good condition is a tough task that Spillman said needs to be prioritized considering how often people damage or vandalize the park restrooms.
“Sometimes you don’t even know what you’re going to find in there,” Spillman said. “Some people just don’t have any respect for anything.”
The initial project list included construction of an additional restroom facility at Northeast Park by YMCA Community Campus, but after all five bids came over budget by $694,758 due to rising construction costs, the Northeast project was transitioned as an alternative item.
Council members opted to prioritize other parks that have existing restrooms in greater need of replacement.
“We can come back and reevaluate that restroom project once every other project is done and identify if the funds are available to construct it as it’s currently designed or constructed in a reduced form,” City Manager Bryan Carter said during a previous work session to discuss restroom options.
Of the four bids received, St. Joseph contractor Lee Grover Construction was awarded the contract and will carry out the project. Roughly $320,000 in CIP funds will go to each restroom.
