Poll could determine future of downtown fountain

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June 26, 2012

Poll could determine future of downtown fountain

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Tue Jun 26, 2012, 06:55 AM EDT

Downtown Dalton could get a new pavilion and gathering area, but officials first want to see what local property and business owners think of the idea.

The Dalton Parks and Recreation Commission has proposed putting a pavilion in Gateway Park, which lies next to Whitfield County Administrative Building No. 1 on Thornton Avenue.

“It would be a covered pavilion with seating and Wi-Fi, a place for people to gather or for people who work downtown to have lunch outdoors,” said Recreation Director Steve Card.

Card says he met last week with the board of the Downtown Dalton Development Authority (DDDA) to see if they would poll their members about the idea.

“We want to see if that’s something they would be in favor of or if they’d prefer to see the fountain reopened or something else there,” he said.

Gateway Park is the site of a fountain that was once a popular gathering area for children and families. But the city closed that fountain five years ago because of vandalism and drought. At that time, officials said it appeared homeless people were washing their clothes in the fountain. The soap they used destroyed the chlorine used to kill bacteria in the water. So city officials had to drain the fountain, as often as every week, and fill it with new water for safety reasons.

At that time, city officials said they were using an average of 1,500 gallons of water each week.

Lightning struck the controls after the fountain was closed, damaging them. And the pump does not work now, either, so all of the fountain’s equipment would have to be replaced.

“The best estimate is that it would cost $50,000 to replace the fountain, and that doesn’t include the ongoing costs to maintain the fountain and run it during the summer and to winterize it and shut it down over the cold months,” Card said.

He said the pavilion would cost about $40,000 to build.

“There would be practically no ongoing costs, just the general costs we have now to maintain the grounds,” he said.

DDDA Marketing Director Veronica French said the DDDA board has asked for some sort of drawing or sketch to give business owners a better idea of what the pavilion would look like.

“As soon as we get that, I’ll email a survey to business owners,” she said.

The DDDA maintains an email list of about 300 property and business owners.

The DDDA sent out a poll last year to that list asking if the fountain should be reopened. It got back 66 responses. Forty-eight said the fountain should be reopened. Nine voted to close the park and reopen Selvidge Street, which currently dead ends at the park. And nine voted to do something else, with four writing in that they’d like to see greenspace there instead of the fountain.

“In talking to people, I don’t get the sense that they necessarily want the fountain open and everything to be like it was. But they do want something there,” said DDDA Chairman Kelly Fletcher.

Fletcher said the DDDA board should likely discuss the matter at its July board meeting after getting feedback from the business owners.

City Council member Gary Crews said the council wants to make sure the DDDA supports any plans for Gateway Park before approving them.

“We want to see stakeholders buying into any plan, that means the DDDA as well as the downtown business owners,” he said.

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