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September 7, 2010

Not just a water fountain

Staff Editorial Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — Moving water just makes you feel better. Whether it’s a splashing stream, a bubbling brook, a wind-swept lake or a gurgling fountain in the middle of town, everyone gets a lift from water.

That’s why it’s a shame that Dalton’s Gateway Park fountain has been closed since 2007 and welcomed news that officials with the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department are looking at turning this popular fountain back on. But it will take some work to get it in working order, and some discipline by the city and city residents to make sure that it doesn’t have to be turned off again.

“Cope Brothers will be working with us next week to look at the pump and the electrical system to see what we need to do to get the pump up and running,” Recreation Director Ronnie Nix told The Daily Citizen. “It appears that, at some point, water got in there and shorted out some of the electrical panels, and the pump has to be replaced as well.”

For those who don’t remember, the fountain was a popular play area for local children and families, but officials closed it in June 2007 because of the drought and vandalism.

At that time, officials said it appeared that 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.

“To the best of my memory, we were using an average of 1,500 gallons of water each week,” said Public Works Director Benny Dunn.

So far, the recreation commission has approved $7,000 to get the fountain running but the city is still unsure what the total cost be, or if they can get it going again for this fall.

“If we get word we can get this done on budget and we can get it done fairly quickly, we may be able to go ahead and crank it up,” Nix said. “But at some point we’d have to winterize it, like you’d winterize any other pump, and wait until next spring to turn it back on.”

We all want to see the fountain turned back on because it enhances the beauty of the city and is a popular place for young people and families with children to gather, although it is by no means limited to just those two groups.

And while we can’t control a drought, we can, to some extent, control vandalism. While we can’t monitor it 24 hours a day, the police can make it a place of emphasis to check and, more importantly, we can all do our part by making sure the fountain remains clean and that we don’t do anything to foul the water. It is a shame when something like a fountain has to be turned off because we can’t treat it correctly. That speaks volumes about us as a city.

We have enough civic pride to want the fountain to be turned on again, and we need to have enough pride to make sure that it never has to be turned off because of our actions.

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