Newbury Trustees Seek Funding for Oberland Park Restrooms
Oberland Park in Newbury Township may soon offer visitors and soccer players access to a permanent restroom.
Oberland Park in Newbury Township may soon offer visitors and soccer players access to a permanent restroom.
Newbury Township Trustee Bill Skomrock said he is researching companies to draw up plans to qualify the project for Ohio’s capital improvement grant.
Plans were requested on short notice, resulting in a scramble to find a company to provide them, Skomrock said at the Jan. 17 trustees meeting.
He said he was impressed by the response of Green Flush Restrooms from Washougal, Wash.
“Their claim to fame is that, without having a septic or a well, as long as you have electricity, which we have, they install a system that has water for flushing toilets, for washing your hands and a vault underneath where the waste goes,” he said.
The water provided in the unit would not be drinkable, but would be clean enough for hand washing. Building a system like this would avoid digging a well and putting in a sewer package plant, he added.
The price of the restrooms would also be much lower than originally estimated, ranging from around $131,000 to $172,000, Skomrock said.
The grant he applied for was $300,000.
Plans are in preliminary stages, but the restroom is likely to be at least two units. Details such as the number of stalls were debated, as well as the option to do multiple unisex rooms or a men’s room, women’s room and family room.
The budget for the project is uncertain as trustees don’t know if the township will be awarded the grant.
Skomrock said GFR is the only company in the country to manufacture systems like these.
GFR’s website describes the units as “modular restrooms with precast concrete foundations that provide a real restroom experience anywhere, even without utilities.”
Also discussed at the meeting was the future of marijuana in Newbury Township, following an email by Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz regarding Issue 2.
“According to what (Flaiz) is saying is, this is not a zoning statute,” Skomrock said, quoting the email: ‘… Any township, whether zoned or unzoned, may adopt a resolution by simple majority vote of the board of township trustees.’”
Therefore, there is no need to hold hearings or obtain the recommendation of the zoning or planning commissions, he said.
“I’m thinking that they’re talking about the processing of it and the retail stores,” Skomrock clarified.
None of the trustees or residents at the meeting were in favor of allowing processing or sale of marijuana in Newbury, but trustees decided against passing a resolution to prohibit both until more investigation into the issue could be done.
