Lake Lisgar fountain comes out for the winter
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The Tillsonburg Kinsmen Fountaineers returned to Lake Lisgar once again Saturday morning to remove the town’s fountain for the winter season.
Initially purchased by the Town in 1994 during the Lake Lisgar Renaissance Project, the fountain has been looked after by the Kinsmen Club, with Pat Carroll as chair of the Fountaineers, since its inception.
Along with Bram Dey’s crane (which is also used to set the fountain into the lake in the spring), Kinsmen Club member Jush Matheson, a professional diver, assisted in Saturday’s operation. Matheson did the “in water” work while other Fountaineers on the barge and on shore handled the cable reeling and electrical connection.
“We had favourable weather this year,” said Carroll.
Saturday’s removal operation started about 8:15 a.m. and was completed by 10 a.m.
“This may have been the most seamless day,” said Kinsmen Stephen Molnar.
“They go out with the barge (Kinship 1) and we disconnect it over there,” said Carroll. “They put a (floating) bottle over there, so we know where the fountain is to go, it’s a good indicator of where we’ve got to put it… and we hope the buoy lasts the winter. It’s tied to a rope.
“So we disconnect it, they roll the cables up to that point there, then they bring it all over here (boat launch area). Bram Dey, who donates his crane and his time, lifts it up and puts it on here. Then we steam clean it so it’s ready for next year.”
This year, the fountain came up with very few zebra mussels. The mussels have been a problem some years.
“A year ago we had to take it out early to fix the pump,” Carroll noted. “This screen was completely full of zebra mussels. We got five gallons of zebra mussels out of that screen.”
The fountain will be reinstalled in late April, early May.
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