By Mark Ferenchik
The Friends of Goodale Park hope the next fix will be the last they’ll need to plug the persistent leak at the park’s pond.
Members of the group are discussing hiring a company to place a rubberized liner around the foundation of the sculpted fountain that the group installed last year, said Rick Miller, the design manager for Columbus Recreation and Parks.
The friends group will pay for the fix; the cost has yet to be determined.
The pond has been unable to hold water since the Friends of Goodale Park installed a fountain topped by two spouting elephants last year.
The city already has spent $144,600 to put down a clay called bentonite on the pond’s bottom and fix the walls in hopes of sealing the leak.
The pond’s water level has dropped about 2 feet since the city completed filling it on April13. From May 18 through Monday, the rate of water loss had slowed to about a half-inch a day, Miller said.
The Friends of Goodale Park are talking with Procon Professional Construction Services of Circleville, the same company that put down the bentonite, for the new fix, said Jason Kentner, who leads the group.
The group’s board still needs to vote on the plan.
“We certainly want to move on it quickly,” Kentner said.
Retired engineer Peter Korda, who has been advising the friends group, said it isn’t known whether the leak is in the sculpture’s foundation.
But Korda said that the city will have to accept responsibility for the leak if the friends group seals the foundation and the water level continues to drop.
Alan McKnight, the city’s recreation and parks director, said he’s hopeful that the seal will do the trick. The friends group recently bought dye to drop into the pond to try to find the hole draining the pond.
The results were inconclusive.
“It’s like a needle in a haystack with this,” McKnight said. “It’s such a small leak.”
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