104-year-old fountain back in Auburn after restoration

AUBURN, Ind. (AP) - After a trip to the repair shop, Eckhart Public Library's 104-year-old fountain returned home Wednesday, better than brand-new.

A giant crane dropped the fountain gently onto its base in the park on the library's west side, where it first arrived in 1912 as a gift of library donor Charles Eckhart.

For five months, the fountain had been at Robinson Iron in Alabama for a complete reconditioning.

Back home, workers had been installing equipment to make the fountain operate more smoothly than ever.

By 3 p.m., the fountain was spraying water gently into a bright-blue summer sky for the first time in more than a year. The water settled into the fountain's pair of tiered-trays, each sending streams through its outlets to the basin below.

All of that was made possible by a public campaign that raised more than $200,000 to preserve the beloved local landmark.

"The outpouring of support from the community has been tremendous," said library Director Janelle Graber, who beamed as she watched a dozen workers put the fountain back in place.

A campaign titled, "The Heart of Our Park: Renovating Eckhart Public Library's Historic Fountain," got a boost right away when local philanthropists Rick and Vicki James said they would match other gifts up to $100,000.

Local foundations, service organizations and individual donors pitched in with gifts from nearly 300 sources, bringing the total to $210,000. The excess will be placed in a fund to maintain the fountain.

The library's staff and volunteers are planning a family-friendly welcome-home celebration around the fountain for Sunday, July 24.

"It speaks to what a wonderful community we live in," Graber said. "It was heartening to be a part of something so positive in the community . and to be a resident in a community where people see a need, and they just step up."

The donations paid for work by experts at Robinson Iron, which has restored dozens of similar fountains.

Each piece of the fountain was sandblasted, primed and coated with two-part system of polyurethane, then reassembled and glazed, said Chuck Knox of Fort Wayne, the project manager.

Workers fixed cracks and reinforced the fountain, which is made primarily of cast iron. Its top piece, which depicts two boys fighting over a duck, is made of cast zinc.

Back home, "We had to retrofit the existing basin to handle a little more modern plumbing, pumping and filtering system," he said. "It's pretty much like a swimming pool system."

A water injection system will circulate water in basin to a skimmer that removes debris. A chlorination system is designed to reduce the build-up of scale on outside of fountain.

"We also have an auto-fill system so we don't have to keep filling the basin," Knox said. "The basin will automatically fill itself to a certain level and then shut off."

As the fountain came back to life, the audience included the Horton family who had watched it leave for Alabama in mid-February. Anna Horton said her young sons, Harvey, Fletcher and Wade - watched in fascination back then. Wednesday, they returned with their father, Will, and 3-month-old brother Edison, who was not around yet to watch the fountain leave.

"We stood for almost an hour watching them load it up," Anna Horton said. "My boys were excited to see it run again."

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Source: KPC News, http://bit.ly/29FTldl