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A9
LOCAL Friday 23 September 2022

Maintenance on three fountains in Oranjestad

Oranjestad - The Director stall them with the hope
of the Public Works Depart- that to complete the job
ment (DOW, ing. Marlon before the end of the year.
Croes reported that the The electrical cabinet and
three fountains in Oranjes- lighting are intact, so they
tad are undergoing main- now have to wait on the
tenance work. stones and tiles to make
the fountain function in its
These three fountains are: full glory again.
Plaza Padu behind the
Government's Office; Fountain between the
Plaza Daniel Leo; Penha and La Moderna
Located between the This fountain has been a
Penha and La Moderna. nuisance for some time,
especially when it is full of
Plaza Padu Fountain Fountain Plaza Daniel Leo water. The DOW pumped
The lighting and electri- This fountain had more the water out, which is why
cal box were vandalized, pressing problems com- it has not been operational
and the lighting no lon- pared to the Plaza Padu for some time. The main-
ger works. The fountain is fountain. Two palm trees tenance of this fountain is
undergoing major main- planted in the middle of it also in the DOW's plan for
tenance, and the DOW grew considerably in the 2023. However, considering
ordered new limestone meantime. As a result, they the nuisance, it is necessary
to replace the damaged cracked the fountain's wall, to discuss the future of this
limestone. Unfortunately, but fortunately, the DOW fountain and the best ap-
during the work, the con- moved these palm trees proach with the DOW, the
tractor fell ill for some time, to the Bushiri area. Once government, and com-
which caused a delay, but moved, they immediate- mercial guilds. According
work will resume next week. ly started working on the to the feedback the DOW
Hopefully, they will com- maintenance work. received, there is an urge
plete it in a week or two. to remove the fountain to
They repaired the cracked stop the nuisance, but the
Meanwhile, another con- wall and ordered the stones DOW needs to evaluate it
tractor is installing the elec- and tiles, but these are not to come up with the best
trical cabinet and new available in Aruba, so they solution.
lights so that they function have to wait for them to be
optimally again. delivered. Once the stones According to the Direc-
and tiles arrive, they will in- tor, "we will be throwing
the towel in the ring" if
they remove the fountain
because of the nuisance
since it will limit the devel-
opment of the city's center.
One option is to complete-
ly renew and ensure that it
is continuously kept in good
condition and possibly in-
stall attributes that improve
the area, such as good
lighting, cleaning, main-
tenance, and supervision
in the center which can re-
duce the nuisance.q