By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Locals who frequent Alabaster’s Veterans Park may have easier access to restrooms while utilizing amenities near the back of the park this spring, as the city is planning to add permanent modular restrooms over the next few months.

Alabaster leaders currently are examining the cost of adding the standalone modular restrooms near the park’s back parking lot, which is near the Beneful Dream Dog Park and the recently added disc golf course.

Veterans Park currently has permanent restroom facilities near the baseball fields and playground areas in the front of the park, but uses portable restrooms in the back of the park.

“We are trying to find a more permanent solution,” Alabaster City Manager George Henry told City Council members during a recent work session. “The way Veterans Park has expanded with the disc golf course, the dog park and from just general use, it’s probably time to do something back there.”

Henry said the city has been talking with the county, which recently purchased and installed standalone modular restrooms near the Peavine Falls parking lot and near the new archery park in Oak Mountain State Park.

The restroom facilities in OMSP are built on slabs, are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and feature solar panels to power lights and fans. If constructed, the new facilities in Veterans Park may be modeled after the OMSP facilities.

Henry said he currently is looking at the cost associated with building the new restroom facilities in Veterans Park, and said he likely will bring the information to the City Council for consideration in January 2016.

“We are considering upgrading restroom facilities in Veterans Park to serve our customers in an efficient and cost-effective way,” Henry said.

If the project is funded, it will come out of the city’s 2016 capital project budget. Henry said build time likely will range from 60 to 90 days.

“I’d like to have it done by the first of spring,” Henry said.