(FOUNTAIN, Colo.) — The City of Fountain is building new smart bathrooms at Aga Park, near North Santa Fe Avenue and West Ohio Avenue, funded by a combination of grant money and developer fees.

As of Monday, Oct. 13, demolition has started on the old bathrooms, which have been around since the late 1980s, with the help of the utilities department, saving the city tens of thousands of dollars by not going out to contract.

Courtesy: City of Fountain

“We’ve had tremendous issues with vandalism with this restroom,” said Gordy McCormick, City of Fountain Parks and Rec Manager. “We’ve been wanting to replace these restrooms since 2018.” According to McCormick, plans for the replacements got put on hold after COVID, as the prices of everything went up, and it was put on the back burner.

The new smart bathrooms will have the ability to clean themselves, with features such as a programmed floor washing cycle, an automatic toilet cleaning and disinfection cycle, and an automatic toilet paper dispenser. The automatic cleaning cycle can be set to occur after every 15 to 20 uses, preventing park employees from being pulled from other tasks to clean the bathrooms four to five times a day.

McCormick said the bathroom will also be vandalism-resistant, as spray paint won’t easily stick to the walls, and it has its own built-in pressure washer to hose off any damage.

“These restrooms, because of their low usage of electricity and water, will also save my department money,” said McCormick. “And that’s really what the taxpayers pay for when they’re paying for parks; they’re paying for our water, staff, and electricity usage. We don’t have to worry about broken toilets going unnoticed. We don’t have to worry about somebody leaving the sink on. We don’t have to worry about somebody trying to steal power out of these. It will just save us tons of money in utilities costs alone.”