The Municipality of Jasper is seeking proposals for the design and construction of a new public washroom building on Connaught Drive until Oct. 15. 

Ken Quackenbush, director of environmental services for the municipality, said the new washrooms would help lessen the burden being placed on downtown businesses to provide bathroom facilities to customers. 

“There’s quite a lot of pressure downtown to build a public washroom,” he said. 

Currently there is one public washroom located north of the train station on Connaught Dr. across from the visitor’s centre. The new washrooms will be placed across from the Shell station on Connaught Dr. at the south end of the street.

“This is a good location because we have open space there,” Quackenbush said. “The location is pretty good for tourist traffic.”

The project will be funded with a 50 per cent contribution from Parks Canada, with the remainder of the funds coming from a grant program. The project will be awarded to the successful bidder mid-October, and Quackenbush hopes the building will be in use by June of 2011. 

“The washrooms will help make visitors more comfortable in Jasper,” Quackenbush said. “It’s another visitor experience improvement.”

No bids have been received on the project yet, but contractors have until Oct. 15 to submit their ideas. The successful applicant will be selected based on price and the minimum requirements put forth by the municipality. Proposals by design/build firms must be vandal resistant, environmentally sound and well-insulated. Only trees that impede the positioning of the new building will be allowed to be removed at the Connaught Dr. location. 

Quackenbush said the municipality does its best to keep all construction projects as  environmentally-friendly as possible. 

“We try to do that with all our public buildings, so we’re leading by example,” he said. 

The new bathroom must include sensor-activated toilets and sinks, and low-water usage fixtures. The full plan is viewable on the Municipality of Jasper’s website.