Brigantine Triangle Fountain Follies. Update.

Work on the new Brigantine traffic triangle at 31st Street continues with construction of a new water fountain. The astro-turf is installed and the traffic patterns have been tweaked. Now, it’s time to build the dolphin-themed fountain. The work is getting mixed feedback from all sides. Click thru for pics & video.

Here’s the latest feedback from the Brigantine Garden Club: The original fountain was donated by the Garden Club in 1988, for which they received an award. Before the construction of the new traffic triangle at 31st street was started, the Garden Club suggested that we lift the old fountain from the triangle and store it at the public works yard.

It was a 10 foot fountain. They now only make 8 and 12 foot models. A 10 foot fountain would be special order, making it too expensive. Brigantine Public Works said the fountain would fall apart if moved. They told the Garden Club not to waste time investigating moving it, because it would fall apart. Guess what. It came out in one piece and was trashed.

I haven’t measured the new fountain but I don’t believe it’s 10 feet on the inside. It would’ve been so easy to make it just a little bit bigger. PW asked for the Garden Club’s expertise, and then did what they thought would look good.

We think it’s too small for such a large area. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it looks terrible, it just doesn’t look great. We will try our best to improve it with landscaping (another problem).

Other thoughts: The bricks are too high. The soil needs to be 18-24 inches wider. Less money would have been spent on astro turf. Our opinion is that the astro turf would be OK on the median dividers, but not at this 31st Street triangle.

Also had the fountain been bigger, it could have double dolphins that would’ve been more visible to the public. This is what we had discussed with Brigantine Public Works and City Manager Blumenthal. I’m pretty sure we also would have gotten dolphins that weren’t blue.

All said and done, the Garden Club will do its best to make it nice. We’re a non-profit volunteer group. We don’t get paid to do this. We do it because we love Brigantine.