The marina at Lone Star Lake is about to get a long-overdue facelift.

Douglas County commissioners agreed Wednesday to spend $186,000 to refurbish the building, including the installation of modern bathrooms to replace the wooden outhouses across the road from the marina.

The marina used to offer paddle boat and canoe rentals, but park superintendent John Landon said that was discontinued about 10 years ago when the marina had to be closed, largely due to deteriorating conditions.

In March, commissioners authorized the Public Works Department to solicit bids that would include installing bathrooms and doing some exterior repairs to make the building weathertight. They were expecting the cost to come in around $115,000.

But when county officials inspected the building to prepare the bid documents, they discovered sewage equipment that was badly corroded and in need of repair. They said if the building were put back into use, that equipment could fail at any time, contaminating the water near the swimming beach.

That left commissioners with the choice of either fixing all the equipment or tearing the building down completely and just installing new restrooms.

Commissioner Nancy Thellman said she did not want to see the building destroyed, and that this might be the county’s last opportunity to keep a marina at the county’s largest park.

Landon said there are no immediate plans to begin renting boats again at the marina. But he said the refurbished building will offer clean, modern restrooms and an open space that can be used for meetings.

Lone Star Lake is one of three parks operated by Douglas County. The county also operates Wells Overlook, and it shares the cost of maintaining Broken Arrow Park with the city of Lawrence.