The popular walk-through water fountain just outside the City’s Community and Cultural Center has been turned off for the last three years due to prohibitive staff costs to maintain it, but an overhaul of the facility’s plumbing and equipment planned for later this year could have the interactive spray feature back on by summer 2014.
City staff proposed spending about $145,000 in the five-year capital improvement program for 2013-2014 to construct an equipment building adjacent to the fountain to house pumps, piping, disinfectant equipment and controls for the facility. The new building will replace the existing underground vault where all the spray feature’s support equipment and plumbing are located.
Moving the equipment back above ground will cut down on staff costs to maintain the equipment, City staff said.
Currently, federal “enclosed space” work safety standards require the City to send multiple employees underground each time service and maintenance to the equipment takes place, which is three times a day when the water is running, according to Morgan Hill Community Services Manager Maureen Tobin.
“We have not operated it the past three years, and that has been a budgetary decision,” Tobin said.
But now, with the equipment proposed for relocation above ground, only one City employee is needed to do the work.
If the project is approved by the City Council in June, construction can start probably by the end of this year, Tobin said.
Once completed, the City will keep the water feature – which is located next to the Children’s Pavilion on the southeast side of the CCC amphitheater lawn – running daily during the hottest months of the year, Tobin said. The last time the feature was on, it ran constantly in the early afternoons from April through September.
“I would anticipate something very similar” in terms of hours when the fountain is replumbed, Tobin said.
The spray feature is about 50 feet in diameter on a soft, spongy surface through which multiple spigots shoot water several feet into the air and back onto the surface.
City Manager Steve Rymer said his staff wanted to reopen the outdoor spray feature – remembered by residents as a source of refreshment and relief on unbearably hot summer days – to bring back a popular facility that young residents enjoy at no cost. Other recreational swimming facilities in Morgan Hill – at the Aquatics Center and the Centennial Recreational Center – require users to pay monthly or day-use fees.
“The nice thing about this is it doesn’t cost anything for the users, and for families to come every day and enjoy,” Rymer said. “It’s one more option the community would have.”
The spray feature was built when the rest of the CCC campus at 17000 Monterey Road was developed in 2002 with former Redevelopment Agency funds. The CCC campus includes the main building with multi-purpose conference and meeting rooms open for public rental, a satellite campus for Gavilan Community College and the Community Playhouse. It also includes a stage and amphitheater, adjacent to which is the walk-through fountain.
Also on the CCC campus is the Morgan Hill Recreation Pre-School, which serves four daily classes of 20 students, according to Carol Lillig, a teacher of 3- to 5-year-olds at the facility.
Lillig said she remembers when her kids – now in their 20s – used to enjoy running through the CCC spray feature when it was new. She anticipate the kids in her class – which continues through the summer – and their parents will be happy to see the fountain on again.
“I know the pre-school parents will look forward to it because they enjoy the (CCC) as a place to meet up and watch their kids play” when they drop off and pick up the children from classes, Lillig said. “It’s safe, and it’s right in the middle of town. A lot of moms and dads at home with the kids during the day look forward to having a place like that.”
Funding for the exhumation of the CCC spray feature’s plumbing and equipment is proposed to come from the City’s parks maintenance fund, which is financed by “voluntary” payments from developers who have competed for residential projects over the years, Rymer said.
At the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, City staff anticipate that fund will have a balance of about $4.5 million. They expect about $450,000 in revenues for the year that starts July 1.
And this year, City staff proposed hiking the annual payments from the parks maintenance fund to the general fund up to $400,000.
“Because (the parks maintenance fund) is getting healthier, we are recommending transferring more” to the general fund, which pays for public safety and streets maintenance, Rymer said. “We have the fund balance to be able to transfer a larger portion.”
