$260,000 plan to restore Fountain Valley’s City Hall fountain overflows current budget

Fountain Valley is moving forward with a plan to potentially spend more than a quarter-million dollars to awaken its dormant City Hall fountain, though less than half of that is currently budgeted.

The City Council agreed Tuesday night to seek quotes and proposals to repair the dilapidated, 17,000-gallon fountain that has been dry since the drought and to partially restore its flow and add landscaping to parts where the water wouldn’t run. Early estimates peg the project at $260,000, though the current budget only sets aside $120,000 for the repair.

The city switched off and drained the fountain in 2015 to conserve water during the drought. Since then, the structure has fallen into disrepair, and the official end to the drought has made the council want to bring it back as a centerpiece of the City Hall complex on Slater Avenue.

In October, the council heard a version of the project that penciled out to about $420,000. That led to further study with more-detailed cost estimates.

The council also considered pared-down possibilities that would revitalize only the water feature or landscaping elements, but not both. Those would cost less than $150,000, according to city estimates.

In other landscaping matters, the city might scrap some of the pine trees in its medians. In a presentation on landscaping overhauls for the city’s arterial roads, the council leaned toward pulling out the canary pines, many of which were planted during Fountain Valley’s growth spurt in the 1970s, and replacing them with smaller willow trees better suited to pedestrians and cars, along with drought-resistant grasses, succulents and other groundcover as the city begins refreshing the medians next fiscal year.

The plan calls for work on Brookhurst and Euclid streets and Edinger Avenue next year, then Magnolia and Newhope streets and Warner, Slater and Talbert avenues through 2022.

The city also will install new “gateway” signs at major intersections.

The total cost of refreshing all eight streets comes to about $2.8 million.

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