Menlo Park: Half-million dollar bathrooms coming to Jack W. Lyle Park

Why not pay the Rosener House $100,000 for use of their bathrooms and save $400,000?

Observers
You have a health compromised population at Rosener both physically and cognitively. Their well being is of utmost importance.

How about you opening up your house bathroom. You can charge $1 for number one and $2 for number two

Has the city approached Mr. Arrillaga for funding of the bathrooms? JHe likes to have his name on buildings.

Also how about charging the sport and soccer groups which use the field. Some of these groups and camps are money making businesses. Let them pay for bathrooms or at least their maintenance.

Burgess needs a new bathroom by the baseball fields or at least a way for people to wash up after using the toilets. And Willow Oaks Park needs a toilet too. Get on it MP

Hopefully the design is open air with no wall around the bottom 16" and a couple feet between the wall and roof. Sink and air dryer on the outside wall. Or your public bathroom is going to look like this
Web Link

500k for bathrooms? Is MP insane? Apparently so.

WTF:

you can thank prevailing wage laws for the price. That and the current state of the construction industry. Way more work than people to do it.

I think the main reason for the bathrooms is for the soccer clubs that are taking over all local parks. Jack W. Lyle Park has turned into mostly a soccer field, which makes me sad. Parks used to be for everyone; a place to throw a frisbee, an impromptu game of flag football, or just a place to lie down and look at the sky. I pass the park often. In the evenings when there is no soccer, which is very rare, neighbors gather and talk to each other while their dogs play. It's so nice to see because I don't often see neighbors outside talking to each other. Unfortunately, soccer (organized clubs) usually dominates the field until dark most evenings, so neighbors don't gather and people living nearby don't have a place to go within walking distance where they can just play after work/school. Currently, with soccer taking a break, there is an orange barrier around the grass to let it heal from the wear and tear from the soccer users. No one can use the field. When soccer starts up again the orange fence will go away. The park is mostly for the soccer groups and not the local community. It's a shame.

Typical Menlo Park.. can’t get anything right.. from stupidly timed El Camino traffic lights that bunch up cars all day to traffic calming projects , done and then redone... charge the soccer clubs $25 per team per day... at least some cash comes back...

sally,

those clubs pay Menlo Park LOTS and LOTS of money to offset the operation of the parks.

with regard to dogs playing.....Lyle park requires dogs to be leashed, which obfuscates the playing part....don't you think?

woof woof

Woof Woof: It's a public park, not a private park for soccer clubs. There was a time when EVERYONE could enjoy playing on the fields, not just soccer clubs who pay for the privilege. Where are local kids/adults supposed to play if they want to throw a frisbee or play a game of football? Isn't that what the park is for? Since when is it exclusively for the enjoyment of money making sports clubs?

Dogs do less damage to the field than soccer players. Did you notice the orange fence around the field? It's there because soccer cleats tear up the field and the field needs time to be repaired. Who is paying for that? While the field is recovering from the wear and tear of soccer players, no one can use it.

As a volunteer kids' coach and referee, I'd like to remind people that these are our children who are playing soccer, and that our teams pay the city by the hour to use those fields. There is plenty of space at Lyle that is not used by teams -- a fenced-off section with swings and slides, and a lawn fronting Middle. And how is it ok for kids to run around informally in the park but not ok if they're playing a game?

Our league has spent a lot of money over the years renting eyesore portapotties, and this much-awaited facility will be a huge upgrade. The pricetag, though, is ridiculous.

Why don't you try and play touch football in the fenced off section with slides. The field has been closed for over two weeks now because of damage from soccer cleats. I'd like to remind YOU that not all kids like to play soccer, and that the field in the park is for EVERYONE - young and old - and not exclusively for young soccer players. The lawn facing Middle is not adequate for a football game and too small for frisbee, which is why you don't usually see anyone on that lawn.

Seems to me the City should have constructed utility hook ups when it built the park Same is true for Seminary Oaks and Willow Oaks parks. A significant portion of the project's cost is installing new electrical, water, and sewer connections. This could have been done when the rest of the park was built, even if the restrooms themselves were not being built.

Sally, I get your beef about field usage but the reality is that the revenue from renting field facilities (and tennis courts) to youth sports programs is a vital component of the park's operating budget, and helps keep the entire park system in much better condition overall.

Soccer bad. Touch football good. Got it. Not sure what this has to do with installing a permanent facility, unless you're a member of a species that doesn't use bathrooms

Rosener House is a “secure” facility and would not be at all appropriate. Prior to port-a-potties, folks used the restrooms at First Baptist Church for several years.

For that price they better be Toto bidet toilets with all the options or I will be really disappointed.

That is gonna attract even more people who use the field as their personal dog run.

Despite the signage posted and a dedicated dog-run available less than 1/2 mile at Neil, dog owners take over the fields in the morning and evenings. Not uncommon to see 6-10 dogs running free there at peak times.

I have seen these dogs interfere with people using the fields for athletics and scaring children playing ball on the field.

The bathrooms sure will attract even more of these people who jeopardize the safety and health of people using that park.

On the upswing, maybe there will be finally an terrible incident that will make the City reconsider their lax enforcement of common sense behavior (no unleashed dogs around children at play).

Feds up
Maybe the dogs can be taught to properly use the new toilets.
Web Link

For the record, when that park was built the area that is now the basketball courts was slated to be an Art Center (no city funding for that then or NOW). so they didn't run stubbed utilities for that reason.

As to the dogs. the people who allow their dogs to run unleashed are law breakers (sic. criminals in the making) irrespective of their "fine" motives and honorable intentions in the rest of their lives. it's the law, and breaking it is the equivalent to running a red light.

woof woof

At Sally:

Most of the severe damage to the field is from dogs urinating and defecating on it.
Go take a look. Those yellow or dead spots that turn into divots are caused by your (big) dogs urine. These are the most expensive to repair too.

To ascribe the damage solely to kids playing on it is close to ridiculous.
Even if all dog-owners would clean up after their pet (from personal experience: they don't), there is still the safety/injury issue from the holes in the turf.

To not completely derail the thread:

Maybe these community-oriented dog owners would like to chip in for a little doggy-potty?

But community doesn't go that far, or does it?

I do not necessarily begrudge the soccer usage. I do find it annoying the schedule of lawn rejuvenation at the start of summer when more kids could use the lawns at Lyle and Burgess.

I mention Burgess because it was also orange fenced off for over a month.

As for dogs. The damage is from soccer at both fields. Not dog urine. As you can see specific patterns of wear and tear in the muddle at near the end goal areas.

Also that "dedicated" dog area is only available 8-10am mon-fri. Well i am not some lulu lemon trophy wife or retired person ...i have a job. So 8-10 doesn't work for well people who work.

My property taxes pay for your kids to have a plethora of areas to play. And the town continues to begrudgingly (we have to argue year after year to be allowed even that meager 15hrs of use/wk, as it is brought up to be discontinued regularly) tosses us dog owner that skint bone.

As for the toilets that this article is about...it is a good idea. Every rec area should have a well maintained bathroom. And yes the cost is high...but that us the consequence of poor original planning and the lack of construction resources due to the overbuilding of Menlo Park.

Sick of McMansions...