Amanda Leffler knows kids get thirsty on hot days at the park. But it 's hard to get a drink when the park 's drinking fountain has been out of commission for nine months.

Leffler and her sister run an in-home day care in Fitchburg. A frequent outing for them is Western Hills Park on Whitney Way, south of Raymond Road.

"There 's always parents telling their kids not to go near the water fountain, " she said.

That 's not surprising considering the state of the fountain. With its bowl and push-button faucet hanging by the thread of a water pipe, it looks a little like an extremely crestfallen robot, or perhaps a depressed penguin. You get the idea -- the thing has seen better days.

Leffler said it 's been broken since September, and while a city worker came by sometime after that to fix a slide at the park, the fountain -- which the worker presumably would have noticed -- has remained a wreck.

It won 't be for long, said Scott Endl, director of parks, recreation and forestry for the city of Fitchburg.

"We 're going to get that one replaced, " he said. "It 's old and it 's beat up and we need to replace it. "

City workers already fixed the fountain twice last summer after it was broken, possibly by vandals, he said. Park drinking fountains are turned off over the winter and as of late May, this one had not been turned on yet, he said.

The city has ordered a new, monument-style one to replace it, he said, at a cost of about $5,000, including installation.

He didn 't know if the supplier had one in stock, so he wasn 't able to provide an estimate of when it would be installed, although he said the city is "planning to do so ASAP. "

Leffler said she still takes the kids to the park and "it 's really good to hear " the fountain will be replaced.

Keeping track

Work to improve pedestrian safety on the streets around Kromrey Middle School in Middleton might be a little behind, but it will be done, a city official said last week.

In December, SOS wrote about plans to add a "pedestrian refuge" — a concrete median — to Park Street and new yield-to-pedestrian signs on Park and Donna Drive.

Kromrey parent Joanne Frey noted last week that the work is still not started, even though city assistant planning director Mark Opitz said six months ago that it was likely to be done this spring.

Opitz said last week that paperwork related to the state grant being used to pay for the improvements is not complete yet, but that the work on Park and Donna should be done this year.

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