Romtec :: News

News

	Golf Course Trades Company Spotlight Golf is all about beautiful courses and challenging play. See our "Company Spotlight" page in the February 1, 2008 edition of The Golf Course Trades! Read the article in The Golf Course Trades! View or download the Golf Course Restrooms brochure.

	Providing Greener Restroom Facilities PROBLEM: We'd like our parks to be more eco-friendly, but we're not sure we can afford it. We're currently adding new restrooms to the site. Is there a way to make them greener? *Read more about green restrooms in Recreation Management Problem-Solver Guidebook, August 2007.*

	East Bay Regional Park District Times were tough in 1934. It was the height of the Depression, and jobs and cash were scarce. But on the eastern side of Francisco Bay, in California’s Alameda and Contra Costa counties, folks were thinking about more than the immediate needs of their families. They were thinking about the needs of their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren. That foresight, paid for with scarce Depression dollars, has resulted in the creation of one of the largest park systems in the country, the East Bay Regional Park District. The district contains nearly 100,000 acres of land, which includes 65 regional parks, recreation areas, wilderness, shorelines, preserves and land bank areas. Ninety percent of the district’s lands are protected and operated as natural parklands. “It’s just an incredible story,” says Dennis Waespi, the district’s sanitation supervisor. “At the height of the Depression, people decided they would spend their cash to preserve what we had around here. If they hadn’t done that,” he says, “today there would be houses on every ridge top.” A wealth of activities The sheer size of the park is stunning, and so, too, is the wide variety of recreational activities available inside it. For example, in the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, an interpretive center is located in an underground chamber excavated in the mid-1920s. Visitors can view the workings of a 20th-century sand mine, learn about the lives of 19th-century coal and sand miners, and visit a historic cemetery. Tilden Regional Park, one of the district’s three oldest parks, features a working carousel, picnic grounds and a botanical garden. Other areas, such as Las Trampas Regional Wilderness, offer visitors a chance to forget the city and immerse themselves in the great outdoors. “I don’t think anyone expects to go 15 or 20 miles up the road to reach a view shed uninterrupted by traffic,” Waespi says, “but we have backpacking areas where you won’t see anyone else but yourself.” Waespi himself gets to hike every day––through Lake Chabot Regional Park, a popular fishing grounds, on his way to work at East Bay headquarters. The biggest challenge park administrators face today is adding land to the district. “We continue to try to acquire lands,” Waespi explains, “because if we don’t get them, the developer will.” A concern for aesthetics Once the park acquires a piece of land, it must be made amenable to visitors. When planning essential improvements such as restroom structures, park administrators incorporate a concern for aesthetics. “In some of our remote parks, the only structure a person sees that is not a part of the natural background is the restroom,” Waespi says. Several of the park’s newest restrooms are from Romtec. Waespi says Romtec’s pre-engineered buildings fit East Bay’s needs because they can be customized to blend in with the natural surroundings. “There’s a parking lot, a Romtec restroom, and the natural beauty the park has to offer.”

	NEW Evergreen Sustainable Buildings by Romtec Romtec, Inc. has introduced the *EVERGREEN* line of public restrooms, restroom/shower buildings, concession/multi-use facilities and municipal/industrial control buildings. The new pre-engineered and prefabricated structures are designed around Romtec's emphasis on resource efficiency and sustainability. Romtec *Evergreen* buildings feature: - High-efficiency and waterless plumbing fixtures - High-efficiency electrical fixtures and water heating - Energy efficient construction - Sustainable materials and manufacturing methods - Available solar water heating and photovoltaic systems - LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification advising and assistance "Our buildings are already designed for very long life," said Romtec's National Sales Manager, Ryan Smith. "The Romtec *Evergreen* line offers even greater efficiency and sustainability to public agencies and private businesses needing high-quality facilities.

	Oregon park district wins NRPA gold medal Third time's a charm! After three straight years as a finalist, Bend Metro Park and Recreation District, a Romtec customer, came home from the National Recreation and Park Association’s convention with NRPA’s coveted Gold Medal. “It really was our Academy Award,” said Don Horton, executive director of the Central Oregon park and rec. district. And he’s not kidding––the production house that makes the 2-foot-wide wood-and-gold plaque is R.S. Owens, which also produces the Academy Award statue. Horton and staff members accepted the award at NRPA’s October convention in Seattle. It is the second win for the district––Bend took home the inaugural Gold Medal award 40 years ago, in 1966. “One thing about this award that makes it different than others is that it takes into account everything you do in your organization,” Horton explains. “It doesn’t just recognize individual effort or single programs; it looks at everyone’s contribution. That really makes this award special.” The NRPA Gold Medal honors communities throughout the country that demonstrate excellence in long-range planning, support systems, fiscal resource management, citizen support systems and a host of other attributes. Bend earned top scores for organizations serving populations between 50,001 and 100,000; the other finalists in that category were Bolingbrook, Ill., Bloomington, Ind., and Foothills, Colo. “The agencies that compete literally have the ‘right stuff,’” says Marianne O’Riley, NRPA’s awards coordinator. “They are the leaders in an ongoing battle to retain diminishing public and private resources allocated for the park and recreation fields.” Bend Metro Park and Recreation District maintains and operates more than 2,000 acres of parkland, which includes 71 parks and 48 miles of trail. The district offers over 550 recreation programs for all ages and abilities, and operates the Juniper Swim and Fitness Center and the Bend Senior Center. Horton points to the district’s exceptional use of volunteers as one reason it stands out. Last year, 1,700 different people volunteered 51,000 hours. The district also places a high priority on including people with mental and physical disabilities in all its programs. The Senior Center is another success story for the district. At 5 years old, it already is operating at capacity. “We serve 800 different seniors a week,” Horton says, “and we have everything there from special programs on tax information to medical help. We serve babies to seniors and everyone in between.” Visit the Bend Metro Park & Recreation website.

	Romtec Sierra building serves Bend, Ore. park Farewell Bend is Bend (Ore.) Metro Park & Recreation District's newest river park. Alongside the Deschutes River, the park contains two viewing shelters, a picnic shelter, benches and doggie rest stops. All structures are carefully crafted to reflect the rustic look the Western town is known for. Bend chose a Romtec pre-engineered restroom/storage building with a customized exterior of stone and wood to matches an adjacent picnic shelter. “The Romtec buildings allow us to take the restrooms and add the matching facades,” says Don Horton, the district’s executive director. “That really adds to the character of the parks.” The Sierra Stretch Quattro building features four single-user restrooms and a center storage room with 6-foot wide door. The layout allows parks workers to close one end of the building during the off-season, cutting costs and lessening the opportunity for vandalism. The Park and Recreation District builds upwards of three neighborhood parks a year. When it comes to planning the restroom structures, the district needs a prototypical structure that works for all of them. Romtec’s pre-engineered buildings meet the district’s needs. Complete buildings ship to the park site, and save the district from going through the design and review process every time a new park is built. Maintenance is standardized across the system, and the similar structures give the parks a common look that fits in with the Central Oregon town’s Western atmosphere. “The Romtec buildings save us money as opposed to having them designed individually,” says Norm Zeisner, development manager for the park district. “Otherwise we would be spending money hiring the architect, reviewing the plans and preparing the buildings individually.”

	Finding the Right Buildings for a Multi-Use Park The right facilities for a multi-use park are buildings that can fill various needs as park uses change from season to season, year-to-year. Park managers who choose to invest in multi-function buildings often do so because they realize that future uses of a particular park may be quite different from current uses. Having buildings that are adaptable to many demands helps ensure that the needs of tomorrow can be met with the facilities built today. Read more in *Recreation Management*.

	Coronado National Forest gets new Romtec stone SST® facilities. Two Romtec SST® Aspen Double waterless toilets now serve travelers on the Sky Island Scenic Byway in Coronado National Forest, northeast of Tucson, Ariz. Windy Point, near Mt. Lemmon, is the location chosen for the facilities that were installed in early summer 2006. Romtec worked with the Forest Service's landscape architect to customize the building designs. Each building is equipped with two 1000-gallon cross-linked polyethylene underground vaults to safely hold waste material. The site design makes for easy access by the pumper truck. This custom restroom building features include: - Native stone on building exteriors to match their rocky environment - Large openings in privacy walls for enhanced security - Storage closet in each building

	Restrooms-concession & multi-use facilities gain popularity Park managers and architects are more frequently specifying restrooms-plus-concession and other multi-use facilities for their park improvament projects. Romtec supplies complete restroom facilities with concession and storage rooms as well as space for park equipment and irrigation/lighting controls. Romtec's concrete and steel structures handle the use and abuse common in public parks, recreation areas and other public spaces. Romtec buildings are easily configured for multiple uses: - Flexible floor plans allow space for concession, storage, etc. - Many sizes and styles available, all meet ADA guidelines. - Split-face concrete exterior resists graffiti and vandalism. - Choice of custom exteriors in stone, brick and wood. - Prefabricated, insulated steel roof with choice of roofing and skylights. - Heavy-duty Lexan windows and skylights for natural light. - Choice of stainless steel or china commercial plumbing fixtures. - FRP finish on interior walls and vaulted ceilings. - Stainless steel concession counter and roll-up window. Read more in *Landscape Architect Trades*.

	City of Concord, CA schools & parks get new Romtec Sierra buildings When the City of Concord, Calif. and its school district embarked on an innovative parks partnership, Romtec Inc.’s pre-engineered buildings helped supply answers. The new El Dorado/Westwood playfields are a cooperative project between the City of Concord and Mt. Diablo Unified School District. During school hours, the park serves students and after hours, it serves the public. Two Romtec pre-engineered buildings served as integral components of the park improvements. The Romtec Sierra III concrete multi-use building provides four ADA-approved bathrooms and a separate concession area. A maintenance room runs down the center of the building, easing vandalism worries by hiding the plumbing and other hardware. A Romtec Sierra concrete utility building features two storage areas. The district uses one bay for recreational equipment previously stored in boxes out in the fields; the other contains equipment used by city workers to maintain the park. Read more about this and other Romtec projects in Landscape Architect Trades.