Damage to Wildwood Fountain is a Municipal Mystery

The City of Wildwood is paying $15,400 to fix the fountain in Town Center, but it may ultimately never know the party responsible for breaking it in the first place. 

When city staff went to turn on the fountain this spring, located in the middle of the roundabout north of the new municipal building, they discovered 4-5 feet of water had gathered in the vault housing its pumping equipment and electrical controls.

The water caused extensive damage and the fountain has been out of operation since then.

 “So, the question then became, how did this happen?” said City Administrator Daniel Dubruiel.

Finding the answer took several months of back and forth between the city, the board of the special taxing district responsible for infrastructure improvements in Town Center, and the contractors who helped install the fountain in 2006.

At first, it wasn’t even clear who be responsible for picking up the tab of fixing it, but Dubruiel said the city actually owns the fountain and is therefore responsible for major repairs.

However, Dubruiel said a meeting last week at last has provided some insight into what may have happened.

“What transpired was that the electric power service to the fountain area, which is controlled by set of breakers located on a panel next to the former city hall entrance, had been shut off,” he said.

That electricity powered a sump pump that would flush out the water that drained into the vault from the fountain over the winter.

“That turned out to be a more key consideration than we had originally understood,” Dubruiel said. “Any snow or rain water does drain down into the sump well to be pumped out, not directly into the sewer line.”

But that only partially solved the mystery. The electrical breaker box for the sump pump did not have a lock on it, so potentially anyone could have walked by at any point over the winter and shut it off.

Dubriuel said it’s possible that it may have been done accidentally by maintenance personnel, but given the open access to the panel, it’s likely the city will never know who flipped the switch.

There’s a lock on there now and the city council recommended Monday that a committee look into additional security measures and provide a more specific guideline for who would be responsible for any future repairs.

The council authorized the $15,400 for the repairs, which will be performed by Missouri Machinery and Engineering Co. Dubruiel said he hopes it will be flowing again in time for several city events later this summer and fall.