
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993                   TAG: 9306140260
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

SELF-CLEANING, PAY-TO-GO POTTY IN THE PIPELINE

City officials might soon make it easier for tourists to answer nature's call by putting self-cleaning public toilets along the oceanfront.

Public restrooms always have been in short supply along the beachfront strip. Many hotels and restaurants display signs barring their restrooms to everyone but their patrons.

So city officials are considering acquiring the tube-shaped potties, which won the endorsement of at least one member of the Resort Area Advisory Commission at a briefing last week.

"I used one in France," said commissioner Thomas Kyrus, a semi-retired real-estate developer and world traveler. "I was impressed."

Robin Kellogg, an administrative assistant with the city's General Services Department, searched for state-of-the-art, portable, self-cleaning toilets at the request of the city manager.

She said she found two. One is manufactured by a French company, JC Decaux, which made $600,000 last year by leasing or selling the automatic units. A second model is made in Italy.

Users of the French model "can only stay for 15 minutes before the door opens," she said. "The unit is self-cleaning. The bowl retracts into the wall and is cleaned and sanitized after each use. And the floor is flushed and blown dry. The process takes 55 seconds."

After 15 minutes, the door opens for the next customer. Units are equipped with inside locks to keep users safe from intruders and floor sensors prevent the doors from locking if the occupant weighs less than 50 pounds, ensuring that wandering toddlers would not get trapped inside.

The fee is 25 cents a user, Kellogg said. But the company makes money on the equipment by renting advertising space on the outside.

The city has a strict sign ordinance that bans or severely restricts the type and number of signs that may be placed on the oceanfront, but the ad ban could be bypassed if the city buys the units outright at about $75,000 each.

Another option would be to lease them for about $35,000 a unit per year and exempt them from the advertising ordinance.

Resort commission members agreed to study the high-tech toilet package.

by CNB