Thirsty in downtown Wichita? The city plans new drinking fountains; new restrooms, too

The city of Wichita plans to install new restrooms at two centrally located parks, as well as four drinking fountains across downtown.

If the City Council approves the staff’s $630,310 proposal at Tuesday’s meeting, Naftzger Park and A. Price Woodard Jr. Memorial Park will both get new restrooms.

A. Price Woodard’s restrooms have been closed for years and Naftzger, the city’s most heavily programmed downtown park, has no restrooms.

The proposal also calls for installing drinking fountains at Naftzger Park, Old Town Square and two additional downtown locations that have yet to be determined.

The city’s 2024-2033 capital improvement program allocates $435,000 for park restrooms. An additional $195,310 would come from the sale of a 14,496-square-foot parcel of land in A. Price Woodard Park to the Hyatt Hotel.

Proceeds of the sale were required to be used to improve the park, which sits on the east bank of the Arkansas River.

City spokesperson Megan Lovely said that if approved, the first two drinking fountains will be installed by the end of the year. The park restrooms could take a bit longer.

“Pending council approval of tomorrow’s items, staff would purchase the bathrooms, which will need to be freighted here, and weather and manufacturing lead times could impact delivery and installation,” Lovely said Monday.

Once installed, public works employees would clean the restrooms “roughly once a day,” Lovely said.

“Both hydration stations and bathrooms may need to be shut off in cold temperatures during the winter months to prevent pipe freezing, but we will know better once they are installed.”

According to the staff report, nearly 30 events were managed by the parks department at Naftzger Park between January and July, attracting almost 4,000 attendees.

“New modern and durable restrooms would provide both parks with facilities that will be highly used during downtown events and by daily park visitors,” the report states. “The hydration stations will improve pedestrian experience by providing a place to get a drink of water and/or refill water bottles.

Although it goes unmentioned in the report, members of Wichita’s unhoused community who oftentimes congregate downtown also stand to benefit from better access to restrooms and clean water.

This story was originally published September 11, 2023 at 1:12 PM.