New Restrooms in Plaza Park Nearly Ready

The Plaza Park restroom project is nearly complete, and city engineers expect to unceremoniously open the shiny copper-topped building to the public later this month.

“It is getting real close,” construction engineer Ken Lewis said. “We expect to be doing our final walk-through sometime in the next two or three weeks.”

The City Council agreed in August to spend $195,111 to build new restrooms in Plaza Park, in a square block of downtown Ventura bounded by Chestnut and Fir streets and Thompson Avenue and Santa Clara Street. Directly across from the downtown post office, the park is one of the oldest squares in the city.

In an effort to spruce up the park, city leaders decided to rip out a dimly lighted bathroom and replace it with a more attractive structure. In November, construction crews demolished the dilapidated restroom and a decades-old concrete bunker next to it, clearing the way for the new craftsman-style building.

This week, workers began nailing down decorative copper roofing panels that some residents objected to when the project was under consideration last year.

Although those residents said a copper-topped roof was excessive, city engineers said copper would withstand Ventura’s moist coastal air better than other materials.

“We’ve got several other copper roofs in the city,” said city engineer Neil Cole, singling out City Hall and both buildings on the Ventura Pier. The pier restaurant now under construction will also have a copper roof, he said.

Eventually, the shiny copper finish will weather to a shade close to the dark green paint now on the restrooms.

Cole said the city does not have a grand opening or ribbon-cutting planned for the spiffy new restrooms.

“It just doesn’t seem right somehow,” he said. “I think we might get some real strange comments on that one.”