Dog walkers at Olmsted Township's Schady Road dog park no longer have to brace themselves for a wobbly porta-potty. A permanent restroom was recently added at the site, replacing the portable toilets that had stood in since the park opened, at a cost of $90,000.
According to cleveland.com, the new restroom is a precast structure, and the township's service department prepped the foundation itself, which officials said helped keep costs down. The project was paid for through a $250,000 Ohio Department of Natural Resources grant that Olmsted Township applied for and was awarded in 2024. That same grant also covered the previously constructed pavilion at the park, along with benches, trash receptacles and dog waste stations installed around the grounds.
Ohio’s NatureWorks program supports this kind of local park development: it offers eligible governments, including townships, up to 75% reimbursement for acquiring, developing or rehabilitating recreational land. The state’s program description puts trails and park facilities within a broader pool of public outdoor-recreation projects that can receive grant support.
The restroom is part of a larger recreational site: the township describes the Schady Road property as a 30-acre park with separate fenced areas for large and small dogs, a nature trail and a small pond. The township’s park plan originally listed a portable rest station among the planned amenities. The dog park and trail officially opened June 29, 2024.
The bathroom wasn't an afterthought. Trustee Gary Yelenosky said the permanent restroom had been part of the park's master plan from the start and was requested specifically because the original portable toilets were vulnerable to being knocked over by wind. The Olmsted Township Dog Park and Nature Trail opened in 2024, with a permanent bathroom promised from the outset, the outlet reports.
Walkway Links New Restroom to the Trail
Beyond the restroom itself, the township has also finished a concrete walk circling the building that leads west to connect with the nature trail, giving visitors a paved route between the two amenities. The work is part of what officials describe as the second phase of improvements at the popular recreational spot, following an earlier update in which cleveland.com reported the township was in the process of completing that same phase.
Replacing portable toilets with permanent facilities has been a challenge elsewhere in Ohio, too. At Oak Grove Park in Washington Township, a park district worked with Montgomery County and the Ohio EPA to install flushable restrooms despite the absence of a sewer line. Its on-site drip-distribution system avoided the need to extend sewer service, which the district said saved $1.3 million.
Back in May, the outlet's report noted the prefabricated restroom unit was expected to arrive around the end of September, and that the township intended to close out the ODNR grant in December, saying at the time that the project was on schedule to meet all its deadlines.
Parking Lot Lighting Up Next, With No Third Phase Planned
The second phase isn't finished yet. Olmsted Township is still working to add parking-lot lighting at the dog park, with officials hoping to get it installed by the end of October. Beyond that, there's currently nothing else in the works, according to the report.
Officials have floated a handful of other ideas for the park, including lighting the nature trail itself, expanding or otherwise improving the existing parking lot, and paving a gravel area in the park's southeast corner that currently hosts the summertime farmer's market. None of those projects are budgeted or formally planned at this point — township officials characterized them as just ideas for now.
