City: Downtown fountain not badly damaged, can be repaired locally
6/11/2008 10:01 PM   0 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend

By APRIL BAILEY

Staff writer

City officials are hoping that the Morgan Circle fountain will be back up and running by next week, said Tom Rapp, City of Aiken horticulturist.

Rapp said the damage to the fountain was not as bad as workers originally assumed. The statue and the bowl of the fountain went down after Monday's storm produced high winds. Rapp said workers first thought the bowl attached to the fountain was cracked, which would have required it to be sent off for repairs.

However, he said that after examining the fountain, nothing looks "really broken," so he says the fountain can be repaired locally. When the fountain was last damaged in a 1986 storm, parts of it got broken and it had to be shipped off for repairs. During the '86 storm, the boy and girl of the statue were blown completely off the fountain, and the umbrella could not be located.

The fountain was erected in the early 1900s in honor of Thomas Redman Morgan, Aiken's mayor from 1899 to 1900. When the fountain was damaged in 1986, the money raised to restore it was contributed by local citizens, clubs and organizations. The fountain, which Rapp has said has come to represent good luck for Aikenites, was also replaced in 1963.

According to Allen Riddick, president of the Aiken County Historical Society, there has been an effort to place an official historic marker at the fountain. City officials, as well as family members of Morgan, held a dedication ceremony a couple of years ago to mark the fountain. Along with the repairs, Rapp said the fountain will also be cleaned and painted while it is disassembled.

He said he hopes to see the fountain running again by next week.

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