The LaHave Floating Fountain in Bridgewater, NS. Photo: Town of Bridgewater/Twitter
The LaHave River Floating Fountain will not be operational this summer as the Town of Bridgewater looks to cut costs.
Mayor David Mitchell says the fountain would have cost the town around $12,000 dollars to operate this summer and that is assuming there were no additional repair costs.
Since 2011, the town has spent around $90,000 servicing the fountain.
Mayor David Mitchell says they have had to pay for expensive repairs in the past because the fountain was not originally designed for a river like the Lahave, “Our climate creates a lot of problems for the fountain because it was not designed for a tidal river like ours,” Mitchell said.
While the fountain is a pleasing sight ultimately it was a “no-brainer” to cut according to Mitchell.
He says town council was considering canceling the operation of the fountain for this summer before the pandemic but when it hit and costs needed to be cut the decision was made official.
More cuts are likely to take place in the coming months as the town gets a clearer idea of the financial impact of COVID-19.
The mayor said, “We’ve passed our budget but with the condition that capital projects would come back to council for sober second thought.”
He says until they begin to see what a second wave will look like they will look at all new and old capital projects with a high level of trepidation.
