LULA — The Lula City Council heard Monday night that rehabilitation of the fountain at Lula Veterans Park downtown should be done by the end of the month.
"At the fountain, we're actually changing the infrastructure that's in there now," said City Manager Dennis Bergin. "It actually has the support beams in it. The fountain is, believe it or not, 7 years old and has been very successful."
Bergin said the long-discussed work shouldn't take too long to complete.
"It's a three-day job," Bergin told the council.
Describing the planned work after the meeting, Bergin said, "I'd say we're retrofitting some infrastructures in there. The fountain itself, the customers won't notice a difference. For us, it allows us to actually govern the decking a little bit better than we have been doing, and we'll go from there."
City leaders want the work done quickly because of a couple of upcoming holiday events. A Veterans Day observance will be held there at 10 a.m. Nov. 11, and Christmas in Lula will follow in December.
"We'll have it back up and running before the first of November, and then we'll close it back down usually about mid-November," Bergin said.
On a related matter, council members voted to table possible removal and replacement of the large maple trees located behind the Veterans Park, citing future issues with tree roots interfering with the fountain.
Mayor Milton Turner again said he doesn't want to see the maple trees go.
Bergin pointed out that any replacement trees would have to be at least 10 feet tall to even be seen over the nine-foot walls of the park.
"We basically would be starting over," said Councilman Vince Evans.
Evans said he'd like to see city leaders wait until early 2017 to decide, giving them time to do more research rather than make a quick decision to get something in place during the current planting season.
