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Q&A
Funding and maintenance of water fountains in NYC parks
0:57:19
·
64 sec
Council Member Shekar Krishnan inquires about the funding and maintenance of water fountains in NYC parks. The Parks Department representatives explain that installation of water fountains as part of larger projects is capital eligible, while standalone installations and repairs are not. They also discuss the challenges of year-round operation due to the lack of reliable freeze-proof fountains.
- Water fountain installation is capital eligible when part of larger park projects
- Standalone installations and repairs are not capital eligible
- Parks Department maintains about 3,700 exterior drinking fountains
- Challenges include winterization and the lack of reliable freeze-proof fountains
Shekar Krishnan
0:57:19
Thank you, councillor Brewer.
0:57:20
Going back to water fountains for a second, are those to install or, you know, to repair water fountains, are those capital eligible projects or are they expense funded?
0:57:32
And what funding do you all currently use?
Matt Drury
0:57:35
So the installation of a water fountain when it takes place of a larger project, a playground renovation, ball field renovation, what have you, that's capital eligible.
0:57:44
And a standalone installation of a water fountain, as I understand it, would not be considered capitally eligible, nor is, let's say, a valve breaks or like so an individual repair is not capitally eligible either.
0:57:56
And also, I'm sorry, was reminded, Councilmember Brewer asked if they were year round.
0:58:00
And currently, they are not.
0:58:03
The market right now does not offer a reliable freeze proof water fountain.
0:58:08
There are frost resistant fountains that we have modeled in one or two locations and it hasn't gone totally great.
0:58:15
But so by and large, they need to be winterized.
0:58:17
So it's just quite an undertaking, as you can imagine, but it's important to make sure that the pipes don't burst, etcetera, etcetera.