Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


New restrooms, concessions, and an ADA kayak launch are coming to Scofield Park in the City of Howell.

The park has two sets of bathrooms that date back to the 1950’s, which are extremely outdated and require more ongoing maintenance. The smaller bathroom was disconnected from power due to safety concerns from faulty wiring. Both are also not ADA-compliant, so the City installed ADA-compliant Porta-Johns at the park.

The City earlier began preliminary design work for extensive improvements to the park and applied for $1.8 (m) in funding through an MDNR Spark grant to help fund some of the upgrades. It was not successful in the first round, but officials are hopeful in future rounds. Regardless, the City decided to move forward with replacing both bathrooms.

City Council met Monday night and approved the purchase of two new facilities for $340,000. One model will replace the larger bathrooms and concession stand at the beach area, and another will replace the bathroom located to the south of the park. Both will be ADA-compliant and allow the City to get rid of the porta-johns, resulting in a savings of roughly $6,000 annually. Since there is such a long lead time for delivery and constant price increases, Council approved the purchase to lock in the current price.

Separately, Council also approved the purchase of a Kayak Launch Dock for $65,500 on Thompson Lake at the park.

The City is utilizing federal COVID-related ARPA funds for the bathrooms and the new launch.

City Manager Erv Suida told WHMI they’re hopeful to be awarded grant funding in the second or third round but in the meantime, ordering the bathrooms is really key because it’s about a year wait. Since they are part of the grant submittal, if the City receives funding the bathrooms are still covered. Suida said they just wanted to make sure to get them ordered so they would at least be installed and ready by the end of the season in August or September, and then fully up and running next year.

Suida said currently, there’s a two-stall bathroom near the hill entrance and another with two stalls and the concession area so both will be replaced with new structures. He said both are much needed and will be fully ADA-complaint and accessible and allow them to get rid of the Porta-Johns.

For the new kayak launch, Suida says there is an old boat launch south of the beach that’s almost before the hill they can utilize. He says that will be a fully universally accessible launch for people of all ages and varying abilities to use and they are very excited – noting that can be used by everybody. The goal is to have the kayak launch in by the end of May or early June and ready for use this summer.

Suida said they’re also hoping to have kayak and canoe rentals for the lake next year when they start manning the concession stand. He noted that lake traffic has somewhat slowed under a new program implemented so there’s fewer boats and less craziness on the lake. Suida said he thinks the non-powered sports will really pick up speed and a lot of people will want to enjoy the lake by kayaking and canoeing.

Memos with further details about the bathrooms and launch are attached.