Council has provided a new direction on the up and down saga of the proposed public washroom for downtown Jasper. The new plan: as green as possible for $300,000, and if that means no solar panels and grassy roof, so be it. This decision followed a wide ranging discussion about the washrooms at council’s June 10 meeting.

Council put out to tender the original plans for the downtown washroom project several months ago. However, they were unhappy with the price quotes they received. Council had budgeted around $300,000 to pay for the washroom. The quotes they received back were all in the $600,000 or above range. Council rejected all of those tenders as too expensive in a unanimous vote.

The reasons for the higher than expected quotes were attributed to some of the rare items council had in mind for its washroom. A grass roof to offset carbon emissions, extra-insulated walls so that the pipes wouldn’t freeze in the winter, solar panels to heat water, a net zero-energy balance and a host of other items meant to turn the washroom into something of an environmental showcase.

On June 8, Council had to decide whether they wanted to continue with this vision or scale it back down to their original $300,000 price tag.

“I think what I’m hearing is ‘See what you can do within the budget,’” said Mayor Richard Ireland, expressing council’s sentiment, which he also agreed with. “It just didn’t seem responsible to spend $625,000 on a washroom.”

“Just build it for under $300,000,” said Councillor Brian Skehill. “I don’t care what it looks like, or what the square footage is. Just under $300,000, please.”

“I’d like to see what we can do inside the budget,” said Councillor Mike Day.

“Do we want to hang our environmental hat on a washroom?” asked Councillor Ralph Melnyk. He said that he basically wanted to see a washroom that was functional, rather than an environmental showcase. He still would like to see low flow toilets and efficient light, which the other councillors roundly agreed with.

Plans reflecting these ideals will be brought back to council at some point in the near future.

This all means some of the green plans for the washroom, which will likely take the title of ‘Most highly used washroom in town’ away from Friendship Centre’s public washroom, will have to be scaled back. Council discussed other goals that may now drop off too. The washroom may now only be open seasonally (likely in the spring and summer). A smaller building might also be offered up. Shared doors through male/female entrances (like at some gas stations) to cut down on the amount of sinks and stalls is also a possibility.

Concerns about whether the pipes that service the seasonal bathroom would unfreeze every year in time for the May long weekend were raised at the meeting. How this matter would be dealt with was not made clear.

Budgetary concerns also appear to have led to the scaled back design for the washroom.

“We don’t have a lot of extra money sitting around that we can just put into this,” said Municipal Manager George Krefting.

Mayor Richard Ireland said that the construction of the washroom was a priority for business owners in town. He said he often heard from business owners that tourists were “banging on [their] doors, saying ‘We need to use your washroom.’”