City of Amarillo to reopen park restrooms for first time since COVID-19

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - It’s been almost three and a half years since COVID forced everything to shut down, including Amarillo park restrooms.

As of right now, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is working on a timeline for reopening as many restrooms as possible.

However, due to the high maintenance and cost demand it takes to run these restrooms, several of them will be torn down, and a few of those could be in your neighborhood.

“Inside the parks master plan it recommended decommissioning many our bathrooms in our very small parts that are located in neighborhoods. The thought there, is people are within a certain distance of their homes. It’s a walking distance park, not a driving park,” said City Manager for City of Amarillo, Jared Miller.

The City of Amarillo also says it could be awhile before the restrooms open, as of them require extensive repairs after being out of commission for so long.

The city does not have a final decision on exactly where they will begin reopening.

They say the main goal right now is to provide a responsible, safe and enjoyable experience for all the residents.

“I don’t exactly know how many of them we’ll be able to keep, now there is some deterioration, there’s some damage, there’s some vandalism. There’s lots of challenges with some of the bathrooms,” said Miller.

MIller says his hope is the city will start working to re-open restrooms by next week.

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