The town of Waynesville will soon put in temporary restrooms next to the popular children’s playground on Marshall Street.

They will be a step up from the status quo of two lone portable potties plunked down at the edge of the parking lot. But they will fall short of full-blown restrooms, although that may still be in the cards in the future.

The new toilets will be housed in an elevated mobile trailer at a cost of $40,000. Old restrooms near the Waynesville Kiwanis Community Playground became run-down, were plagued by vandalism, and were eventually shut following arson in 2011. The old concrete structure, which was originally a pool bath house, will be bulldozed to make way for the mobile restroom unit. The cost will be paid for out of $97,000 in insurance money the town received after the fire.

Town leaders had contemplated using the cinderblock shell of the old restrooms as the backbone for a new restroom facility to include meeting space and a concession area, and even had architectural plans drawn up. But trying to salvage the old structure proved more costly than simply tearing it down and starting anew, so the town has gone back to the drawing board on a long-range plan. 

Rhett Langston, director of Waynesville’s Parks and Recreation Department, said one benefit of the new restroom trailer is it can be picked up and moved if needed elsewhere for festivals or town events.

“It will be a very good and sound investment,” Langston said.

— From staff reports