By Geoff Smith (@smithco on Twitter)

Mayor takes new public restroom for test drive

Sep 28, 2016 | 12:26 PM

LETHBRIDGE — For parents of young kids, people with medical issues, even the homeless, it’s an important development in downtown Lethbridge.
 
A small building downtown on 6th Street next to the Bank of Montreal is now operating. It’s a free public restroom that cleans itself after each use.
 
The design is common in Europe, and there’s already one in west Lethbridge. It cost approximately $195,000, which came from the budgets of infrastructure, transit, and the Heart of Our City committee.
 
“We don’t have a bus shelter, so the first priority is to provide access to people who use the buses,” Mayor Chris Spearman said after showing how the facility works Wednesday, Sept. 28. “Those can be people with disabilities; they can be young families; they can be people with medical needs. So to have an easy-access restroom is very important to downtown.”
 
After each use there’s a quick rinse of the toilet bowl, then a more thorough cleaning of the floor and toilet while the door is closed. The restroom is accessible, heated, and includes a change table.
 
The door unlocks after 15 minutes, and the restroom is only open between 5:30 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. Spearman says these measures should prevent it from attracting vandalism or other illegal activity.
 
“I think those types of things won’t be active issues. But certainly we will use all the regular monitoring activities. We want to see how this works in a downtown situation,” Spearman said. We’re not the first city to do this; it’s new to Lethbridge, but we want to make sure it goes well for our downtown.”
 
Construction began on the new restroom building in August. While it’s the first in the downtown area, the city aready had one on Caledonia Blvd. W.