May 29, 2020 | Fountain Off for Repairs
4 Comments | Categorised in: Fountain News & Updates, Fountain WorksFriends and neighbors:
Just a quick note to explain why the Fountain at The Circle has been off or empty a few times recently, including this weekend.
In late April, a problem developed with one of the pumps that powers the fountain and with a circuit breaker for the fountain lights. Our partners in the city’s maintenance crew investigated, and it took a few days to repair those.
Since May began, the fountain was “soaped” — detergent tossed into the water to create foam — twice. Our volunteers cleaned up those messes, but each time required draining the thousands of gallons of water in the fountain, hosing down and squeegeeing everything, cleaning the various pump filters in the fountain works and letting everything dry out before refilling and restarting the fountain.
This past week, a new problem cropped up with one of the pumps. The city came to our aid once again, and found that a new piece of equipment was needed to repair the problem. We are hopeful that can be obtained and installed by Monday, but that means the fountain will not be operating this weekend.
We realize how many of you enjoy the sight of the fountain flowing both day and night. We hope that sight will be back very shortly. And, as always, thank you for your continuing support of Friends of the Fountain and Walk. And remember that you can always connect with us — as a Friend, a donor or as a possible volunteer — by clicking on those options here or on the home page of our website.
Thanks. We hope everyone is safe and well during these trying times.
— Board of Directors, Friends of the Fountain and Walk
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4 Comments
Once upon a time, when I was very young, the kids that put the soap in the Fountain would have been easily identified. And then they would have worked with the crew that had to clean up the mess they made. And their parents would have been there to make sure they really did Work.
Any way to have cameras aimed to hopefully find the kids doing this now? You could call working on the clean up an “Educational Experience” where they would learn about chemistry, physics and the nature of substances in water.
Hello, Jenny. Even if we managed to install cameras and possibly see someone in the act, it is not likely the deed would prompt any official response. It is about the most low-level vandalism there is, not a high priority for law enforcement. And we as an organization don’t have much power to go after anyone, either. As we said to another commenter, we rely on the support and goodwill of the community to make the case for us to young people (almost surely) who are tempted to do this to think twice. Most of the time that works. And when it doesn’t, it hopefully becomes a teachable moment for the next would-be soaper.
sure would be good to stop people from soaping the fountain. A small sign that explains the damage/consequences?
Hello, Emily. We try to make the community at large aware of the waste and trouble of the fountain being soaped, and hope that is communicated to those who might be tempted to do it. We try to keep signage in the area to a minimum, too, focusing on supporting FOFW and its work. Someone that comes by in the wee hours armed with soap and possibly not entirely sober will not bet deterred by a sign in any case, most likely. We have instead taken action to shut the fountain off in the wee hours to avoid trouble, and that works the great majority of the time.