If you visited Forest Park areas like the World's Fair Pavilion, Government Hill or the Boathouse last month, you likely noticed that Kerth Fountain was not working. A pump motor caught fire early in the month — requiring around $40,000 in repairs. Because of Forest Park Forever's growing endowment, our nonprofit conservancy was able to immediately fund these repairs and work with our City of St. Louis partners to have the fountain back flowing for visitors early this week. Without these additional endowment dollars available, the fountain might still be dry today.
As part of the Forever campaign, Forest Park Forever is expanding our endowment for the Park by $100 million. With a more robust endowment, we will be able to more quickly tackle urgent repairs like this one — and continue helping visitors have a magical time in the Park. Thanks to all of the donors thus far who are helping us reach our goal.
This unexpected maintenance work came on the heels of planned repairs that took place over the winter. Kerth Fountain had been plagued by a series of leaks. Our team, alongside our City partners, identified the need for repairs and were able to pinpoint and fix the issue before the Park's busy spring season. In late 2016, KMOV featured this repair work in a segment on the evening news.