Brown: New restrooms coming to City Park in next phase of improvements
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
Copperas Cove’s Parks & Recreation director, Joe Brown, recently provided information at the department’s quarterly town hall meeting about the multi-phase parks improvement plan that got under way in early 2018.
As far as bathrooms are concerned, with the start of phase 2 of the parks project, that will begin soon.
“We cannot replace all the bathrooms we have proposed, but we’re really looking to replace at least three in City Park with phase 2,” said Brown, adding that he will be bringing information to the city council about proposed replacements at a meeting in the near future.
Phase 2 of the park projects funding totals $378,029, with that allocation going toward restroom renovations, Brown said.
“This salvo of funding will likely replace three restrooms at City Park and retrofit the existing CXT restroom at South Park, i.e. new doors, fixtures, adding a drinking fountain, LED lighting, mag lock locking system (digitally controlled door locking system), new skylights, and paint job.”
Part of that phase 2 funding has $49,000 earmarked for the design phase, with Brown stating that they are looking to use CXT as a vendor.
After the restroom presentation is made to the council, Brown said the anticipated timeline would be a 30-day notice to proceed, followed by 200 days to complete the restrooms.
Two parks which don’t have restrooms, Rhode and High Chaparral, will likely have septic system model type restrooms which would be funded through future allocations, but Brown said the department is simply in the planning phase where those are concerned.
“For Rhode and High Chaparral, there is no sanitary out there. We are working with CXT to have a vented option, like a very efficient honeybucket restroom. So it’s pretty solid unit, the only operational impact there is to clean it out,” Brown said at the Nov. 8 Quality of Life Board meeting. Those facilities would be part of a later phase in the parks improvements.