Fountain shows recession

Eric Downing
Critic Staff

Budget cut causes pond to recede.

Where did the pond go?

Last week, students may have noticed something odd about the pond in front of Stevens Dining Hall.

Fountain pond, as it’s called because of the stream of water that shoots straight up in the middle of it, was looking a little low for a few weeks. The water level appeared to be approximately two feet below its normal depth.

“We’re trying to save town water,” Tom Archer, the director of physical plant, said.

In past years, the fountain had been filled continuously with water from the town. This year’s deficit forced LSC to look for budget cuts, and supplying the fountain constantly seemed like an obvious choice.

Currently, the fountain is on a monthly schedule to fill it. The fountain itself does not supply water to the pond, but actually just re-circulates the water already in the pond.

Fountain pond’s town water supply was turned off to “make sure we don’t have any major leaks,“ Archer said.

Archer cited evaporation as playing a key role in the fountain’s decline. Water shot into the air is much more likely to evaporate. The speed of the fountain’s drop might suggest that there are holes in the liner underneath the pond.

If the fabric is indeed leaking, Archer said that it would have to be dug up and replaced. Students who look forward to seeing the “ice sculpture” the fountain forms in the wintertime shouldn’t worry. Archer was positive that it would be seen again this winter, even if it may be a bit smaller. “It’s a nice nostalgia thing,” Archer said.