Self-cleaning washroom in St. Catharines reopens

A self-cleaning washroom in downtown St. Catharines has reopened.

“Significant damage” shuttered the Geneva Street facility back in November.

Repairs on the Automatic Public Toilet (APT) took nearly two months, with the washroom only reopening for public use this past Wednesday.

This recent closure isn’t the first.

According to the city’s top engineer, disruptions at the public washroom have resulted in it being closed 35 per cent of the time since it first opened in May 2023.

The original plan for the facility was to have something that operated on a 24-hour basis, with little to no need for maintenance.

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The high-tech washroom cost taxpayers a whopping $500,000 when it was initially built and boasts several features which, in theory, should maintain a high level of cleanliness and decrease the amount of upkeep it requires.

Each time it’s accessed, the toilet inside flushes. Every 10 visits initiates a cleaning cycle. Cleaning cycles mean wall-mounted water jets activate and spray down the floors, pushing dirt into a mechanical room where it disappears down a drain.

However, it wasn’t just a case of the city wanting the latest and greatest style of toilet in its downtown core.

City staff had assembled a list weighing the pros and cons of several different styles of public washrooms and turned to the residents of St. Catharines for feedback.

The three choices on the table were the APT style, with its high cost to build and low cost to operate, conventional washrooms with a low cost to build but high cost to operate, or a Portland Loo-style toilet that landed somewhere in the middle of both.

Despite the estimated operating cost being much lower, the reality of the situation has been quite a bit different.

The facility has been closed for roughly 80 days since its christening.

The costs associated with those closures are currently unknown, and city staff say they won’t have the numbers until next May.

“We hope to have something back in Q2 of 2024 after a full year of operation,” City Director of Engineering and Facilities, Anthony Martuccio, told CHCH News. “Staff are currently tracking and working through the associated actual costs for the facility and will have a more accurate representation of costs after a full year of operation.”

He added that since reopening, the washroom now operates under newly revised hours, opening at 7 a.m. and closing at 7 p.m.

It remains what’s in store for the future of the public washroom, but city council is slated to address the issue in an upcoming meeting later this year.

Unfortunately its out of order most of the time

— Bob 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇪 (@BobTym) April 22, 2023