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Park to feature ‘green’ toilets

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By Dave Greber, Staff Writer 3:06 PM Wednesday, December 16, 2009

MADISON TWP. — One local group of history buffs are hoping visitors come to an area park this spring just to use the bathroom.

The Friends of Chrisholm, whose mission is to restore, preserve and develop the Chrisholm Historic Farmstead, recently secured the $70,000 needed to build a “green” composting restroom facility among the 17-acre knolls just south of Trenton.

Chrisholm leaders have spent five years planning and raising funds. Half of the project’s funds came from the group’s volunteers, according to Vice President Anne Jantzen.

“We had talked about the site being able to handle larger crowds,” Jantzen said. “We really felt like we didn’t have the amenities, and a big part of that was not having restroom facility.”

Thanks to financial support from the Middletown Community Foundation, The Fitton Family Foundation, Duke Energy and the Butler Rural Electric Community Connection, their outlook changed, she said.

Construction on the prototype restroom is set to begin in the spring and be finished in time for major attractions like the traveling Smithsonian exhibit, “Between Fences,” in May.

The water-free facility includes two toilets in each men’s and women’s sides, with thick insulated walls to increase energy efficiency. Waste is collected in a series of sub-floor tanks that include additives to help speed composting and eliminate odors, Jantzen said.

Each year, the tanks will be cleared and the compost will be used around trees and some plants at the farm. But not on the Friends’ vegetable garden.

“We’ll be very careful about where we use (the compost),” Jantzen said. “People are pretty squeamish about where we’re going to use it.”

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