It appears drinking fountains have
been bursting all over our parks. Don’t get too excited. Nobody was hurt, but
I imagine a few plumbers probably got sprayed. According to eyewitnesses, it
looks like a bottle of champagne being uncorked.
This doesn’t usually happen because
it’s not usually this cold this early in the year. According to my friends at
the Minneapolis Parks, the pipes can’t handle anything below 25 degrees for more
than 10 hours. So far, at least eight pipes have burst in Minneapolis and four in St. Paul. It’s not a huge deal, except that it
does cost money and time to fix those pipes.
This is the “most time consuming
part of the year,” according to the two Park plumbers in St. Paul. At the
beginning of October, they started winterizing the irrigation systems, fountains
and bathrooms. Essentially, that means they turn off the water and shut them
down. The seasonal restrooms closed on Oct. 3 in the small
parks, Oct. 10 in the large ones. They want to have everything
shut down by the beginning of November.
In Minneapolis, this process takes a little longer
simply because they have more parks. The five plumbers there start there right
after Labor Day. They shut down the least used spots first, leaving the Chain
of Lakes for last. Everything should be winterized in Minneapolis by Nov. 15. A few Port-O-Potties will stay open for the diehards.
I do wonder why we can’t leave some
of the most popular water fountains and bathrooms open during the winter. I
mean, the coolest thing about the parks in the winter is the huge number of
people who use them. According to Dawn Sommers, PR Extraordinaire for
Minneapolis Parks, you can’t just heat the pipes. You have to heat the whole
place. She says lots of these bathroom buildings and fountains were built in
the early 1900s and don’t have the infrastructure to support a heating system. She also wonders, in this day of shrinking city budgets, should we install
heaters in the bathrooms and fountains?
So, for all of you runners, walkers
and bikers, get your drink on now. Or just go buy a water
bottle.
