January 1, 2020 | Happy (but Soapy) New Year!

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Friends and neighbors:

First, happy new year greetings to everyone. Hope this is a wonderful, healthy, fulfilling year for us all.

Second, thanks so much to everyone who has donated in recent weeks to Friends of the Fountain and Walk. The generous, continuing support of our community is inspiring and gratifying. And your tax-deductible contributions will help us take care of some needed repairs and improvements in and around The Circle this year. Details to come.

Finally, an explanation of why the fountain is dark and not operating tonight, the first night of the year. Sometime in the wee hours of Jan. 1, someone or someones put soap in the water and filled the fountain with suds. We have explained previously how this seemingly innocent prank creates a major headache and wastes thousands of gallons of water, as the fountain needs to be drained, cleaned and refilled, and the pumping system and filters cleared of soap residue, a process that requires several hours and a lot of manual labor. (That’s board member Leo Rainer, with hose, and Circle neighbor Mitch Yoffe working to rid the fountain of soap.)

As we write this, the fountain is being refilled, but not in time for it to be put into operation again on a lovely holiday evening. The soaping also required us to remove the decorations from the bear cubs a few days early (the lighted swags around the perimeter will be on as usual until Saturday).

So once again, a plea to everyone to discourage this fruitless and wasteful act of vandalism that denies all of us the pleasure of a lighted, flowing fountain. We have been fortunate to have it happen only rarely in recent times. Better would be that it never happens again.

Happy new year and thanks again to all those who are Friends of the Fountain and Walk.

— The Board of Directors

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2 Comments

  • Karen Borst-Rothe says:

    I hope all neighbors as well as passers-by of the fountain spread the word that such seemingly fun or prank fountain soapings not only require lots of work to address the problem but just as important waste water when we are still in a drought.

    This prank is not funny. It’s also extremely wasteful of a limited natural resource.

    Please spread the word as well as be on the lookout for those who do this without thinking or simply for fun. Perhaps if caught in the act, we should require them to labor over the fountain cleaning and then pay for the extra water usage?

  • Peter Hess says:

    Low IQ vandals never consider the consequences of their actions.

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