On April 5, the Delta College Board of Trustees discussed in a meeting the maintenance of water fountains on Delta Campus. The water fountains were included in a larger report about campus beautification.
Three areas of campus were addressed at the board meeting for the status of their water features: the Holt, Locke and Shima Center. The water features at these buildings have experienced maintenance issues that Delta’s Facilities department is looking to fix.
“I really do think that’s one of the unique things about our district and our campus here on Stockton is the water features around, almost like a plaza area, all over. So this is something that we’re very, very happy to do,” said Augustine Chavez, vice president of Administrative Services, on April 5 at the board meeting.
Throughout the first half of the semester, the fountain at the Holt Center was down. However, Delta had recently ordered a new $1,300 water pump for the fountain that was installed around the beginning of April. The fountain remains operational at the time of writing.
The water features at the Locke Center had also been out of commission since before the spring semester. According to Stacy Pinola, Director of the Facilities Planning and Management Department, the Locke water features suffer from leakage and will need repairs in order to return to operation. Facilities is currently estimating costs for repairs at around $40,000 and expects that the Locke water features will undergo renovation by this summer.
“Our water fountains are a unique feature of this beautiful campus and we’re excited to have two of them returning to service in the very near future,” said Alex Breitler, Director of Marketing and Communications, in an email sent to the Collegian on April 5.
According to Pinola, the fountain at the Shima Center has been decommissioned for over 20 years. The Shima fountain’s water pump had the issue of leaking into the crawlspace, which past attempts at repairs failed to fix. The Shima fountain has since been repurposed as a makeshift planter, but the Facilities is currently investigating what needs must be addressed in order to renovate the water feature with the help of the Board of Trustees and Executive Team.
“This one, [the Shima fountain] we think, is a little bit more tricky. So we’re gonna have to look at what we can do to get this one … We’re gonna start working on that,” Chavez said on April 5 at the board meeting.
The planned water feature renovations are not considered to be part of a building project, and thus does not help meet Measure K goals. All water feature renovations are being paid for using Capital Project funds.
