Peachland the latest Okanagan town to spend big on ‘ugly’ washroom

The District of Peachland has invested over $200,000 into "ugly" washroom for its downtown.

Anybody familiar with Beach Avenue's entrance will notice the new facilities immediately. Motorists approaching Peachland's downtown are presented with a quaint view of local businesses that line the waterfront of Okanagan Lake, surrounded by mountains, parks and recreational fun.

But now there’s a large greyish-green box that’s front and centre for anybody coming that way. The new washrooms resemble the type of trailers that are seen on construction sites.

“The problem here is we ordered a washroom, none of us saw it, it arrived, we think it's ugly,” Councillor Pam Cunningham said at last week's council meeting.

The District needs functional washrooms in place to get permission from Interior Health to operate a new splash pad at Heritage Park. An existing washroom is only a stone’s throw away from the splash pad but that's not close enough because it’s on the other side of Beach Avenue, which would require users of the splash park – children – to cross the street.

Interior Health said in an email statement the need for washrooms at a water park are a matter of safety and sanitization.

"Concerns were raised with the safety of children crossing the street from the spray pad to access the washrooms," the email reads.

"Appropriate washrooms are also important to support good personal hygiene which helps maintain a sanitary pool environment. We continue discussions with Peachland to find an appropriate solution for these washrooms."

According to a memo from Urban Systems, the washrooms were estimated to cost $100,000 in 2017 but the actual cost was $188,024. Council recently decided to spend an additional $40,000 to make it accessible by ramp. 

Giving the public a way to relieve themselves isn't cheap anywhere in the Okanagan. 

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In Kelowna in 2019, $206,000 was spent on a pop-up toilet that was in place for three months to serve homeless people. 

In the Vernon, $42,000 was spent on dealing with vandalism at one outdoor washroom in 2020, after costing the city $110,000 to build. Vernon council initially considered spending as much as $275,000 on the washrooms. 

The City of Penticton has also had to deal with issues of vandalism in its public washrooms. 

And new outdoor washrooms have just been planned in Summerland, as the district announced earlier this week that a new one will be getting built at the base of Giant's Head Mountain as part of a $1,682,782 upgrade. Washrooms already exist close to the top of the mountain. 

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