An anonymous donation to the Town of Huntsville will allow for a permanent washroom to be installed at River Mill Park.
At the July 25 town council meeting, Tarmo Uukkivi, Director of Operations and Protective Services, told council the donor has agreed to contribute up to $300,000. He wouldn’t provide the name of the person but did say as the talks about the donation continue, it’s possible the person’s name will be released.
Uukkivi estimated building a new, permanent washroom facility could cost close to $300,000 when factoring in inflation, but noted that is far from an exact figure.
In his report to council, Uukkivi says that portable toilets will be placed in the park once the Coldwell washroom lease expires on Sept. 1.
Uukkivi explained the facility would be installed in the empty space “past the bandshell where there’s a stand of basically mostly evergreens.”
Council voted unanimously in favour of the idea.
“This isn’t one of those sexy donations where you get your name on the side of a building but this is so much wanted and needed,” said Coun. Bob Stone. “I want to kiss this person, so I hope we can soon know who it is.”
According to Uukkivi’s report, the next steps involve finding an architecture and design consultant to provide design concepts. After that, a contractor would be brought in to figure out a budget for the project, which would, in turn, be sent to the donor for approval. When all of that is done, Uukkivi targets the end of fall 2023 at the latest for when the facility will be ready to flush.
The plan comes after Uukkivi was directed by council in June to develop a costed plan of moving the Kent Park kiosk from its current location in River Mill Park to a new location. It was decided that the kiosk would be converted into a permanent washroom facility.