Friends and neighbors: If you have been by The Circle in recent days, you may have seen city crews at work digging and planting locator flags on the center island and the surrounding parking strips. They have been carrying out various pieces of long-planned projects, some of which are finally coming to fruition. Following on the heels of the recent resurfacing of...
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Friends and neighbors: In an effort to discourage the kind of vandalism that has left the Fountain at The Circle awash in soap suds and other substances about a half-dozen times in the past eight months, we are trying a new strategy: shutting the fountain off completely during the early hours of the morning. We will be testing this out...
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Friends and neighbors: Our lovely and historic fountain was the target of vandalism once again overnight on June 23. Someone(s) once again put detergent or some other foaming agent in the water, which has once again required that it be shut down until the soapy water can be drained out and replaced. This seriously un-funny act of vandalism — which costs...
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Update, June 8: City workers today pumped out the contaminated water from the Fountain at The Circle and will refill it. According to an article on the recent rash of soapings posted on the news website Berkeleyside.com, the city estimates the expense for this operation at $1,000 — that’s each time it has to be done. So please help us...
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Friends and Neighbors: You may have noticed that the fountain has not been running since Friday May 26th. This is because a large amount of dye and soap were dumped into the water sometime Thursday evening. This is the third time since the beginning of the year that the fountain water has been adulterated, each time necessitating a complete replacement...
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The reclamation and restoration of Fountain Walk was one of the founding efforts of what became Friends of the Fountain and Walk. The historic walkway above and alongside the Sutter-Solano Tunnel was part of famed architect John Galen Howard’s original design, along with the Fountain at The Circle and the surrounding balustrade, for what would have been the grand entrance to...
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Friends and neighbors: A few updates to share about goings on at the Fountain at The Circle and Fountain Walk: Bollard repairs/improvements — An accident during a rainstorm in February led to two of the bollards that surround and protect the fountain being knocked over by a vehicle. The fountain was not damaged. The two broken bollards have been replaced,...
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Hello Friends of the Fountain and Walk Volunteers, This Saturday, April 1 is the first Saturday of the month, and we look forward to volunteer day at the Fountain! The weather looks like it will be wonderful. Please join us any time from 9 to 11, if you are available, for some sweeping, weeding, general clean-up and comradery. We can...
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Friends and neighbors: If you’ve passed by the fountain in the past few days, you may have noticed that a pair of the concrete bollards around the perimeter of the center island have been knocked down. This is the result of a Presidents Day accident that occurred during the heavy rains; a truck went up over the curb of the island...
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Friends and neighbors: A new (Tuesday, Jan. 3) update on the state of the fountain: According to Bruce Pratt, senior maintenance supervisor for the City of Berkeley parks department, the heavily soaped water in the fountain is scheduled to be drained off tomorrow morning and replaced. Ideally the fountain will be back to running as normal soon after. Because improvements to the...
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