Spring cleaning
What it takes to get city fountains and other water works ready for the summer season
WATERLOO REGION — A late spring has left city staff rushing to get prominent outdoor water features up and running before the May long weekend.
“It isn’t just plug it in and away we go, we need to make it look good,” said Mike Wigzell, supervisor of facilities management for the City of Kitchener.
While it may not be the most glamorous of tasks, getting outdoor fountains cleaned, painted and connected to a water source takes a team effort from a number of people, including contractors, plumbers and aquatic staff.
The Carl Zehr Square fountain, which doubles as a skating rink in the winter, was scraped and power-washed on Monday. It had to be cleaned with a diluted organic acid wash before being painted black to enhance the look of the water.
Built in 1993, the circulating water feature holds 50,000 litres of water — 20,000 in the pool and 30,000 in underground holding tanks. Five fountain heads, removed every fall to make way for the ice surface, have to be put back into place in the spring.
It takes eight hours to fill the Carl Zehr Square fountain, which is the same amount of time it takes to fill the iconic Centennial Fountain in the middle of Cambridge’s Queen’s Square.
For nearly 20 years, Chris Ziemski, Cambridge’s manager of parks and recreation operations, has been involved in getting the fountain working each spring.
Shaped like a maple leaf, the water feature was built in 1967 in recognition of Canada’s 100th birthday. Just last year,
thousands of dollars were spent to repair and improve accessibility to the aging fountain.
“We try ... opening for the Friday before the Victoria Day weekend,” said Ziemski, adding that staff have to work around the weather to get it ready.
Large wooden covers are removed from the fountain, and like Carl Zehr Square the inside of the fountain has to be scrubbed clean.
A plumber makes sure the water is connected correctly and that all the pump features, such as the back flow prevention, are working correctly before nearly 38,000 litres of water are emptied into the fountain.
“Once we have enough water into the main pump room to actually fill the pump, then that’s primed and we do a test run,” said Ziemski.
“Our goal is to find any problems so that the fountain doesn’t shut down once it’s meant to be up and running for the season.”
City fountains are also treated with chlorine to prevent algae.
Interestingly, it’s not common for people to throw coins into the
Carl Zehr Square or Centennial fountains.
“It used to be very common,” said Ziemski.
“One of the pieces to this fountain that makes that probably less common today is you can actually step down into the pool with your feet (with the latest renovations).”
At one point, the Cambridge fountain would see $600 to $700 thrown into the fountain every season. The money was donated to a local charity, said Ziemski.
While Carl Zehr Square and the Centennial fountain likely involve the most labour to get up running in the two cities, there are other fountains city staff are responsible for keeping esthetically pleasing.
“Rockway Gardens, there’s a lot of wedding photography that happens there and it wouldn’t be very good if we had any of those ponds bloom with algae,” said Wigzell.