The Woodlands Fabulous Front Fountain

The Woodlands Front entrance fountain during better days

By Sharon Aron Baron

The Woodlands has a gorgeous main entrance fountain that I found appealing when I purchased my home.   Now, it never looked as glorious as it did in the undated photo above, but the fountain was operational.

Last summer, the fountain was broken for several months.   I contacted our HOA president Bill Pressman about it several times, and he said it was the country club’s responsibility.   I went to the country club and eventually got them to fix it.  At least temporarily.

What happened was the motor was on its last leg, and luckily they were able to get parts to get it working again.   Bill was hoping the motor would last until at least July 15th, 2011, when maintenance of the fountain and our medium on Woodlands Boulevard would be handed over to the City of Tamarac through an agreement that goes back 25 years.

It looks like Bill Pressman got his wish.

The fountain’s motor made it through the year and broke down for good this week.  Less than one week shy of the 15th.  It was fully operational for many months after its last big fix, and the only time it would break down was when too much water accumulated in the pond beneath it and had to be manually drained.   I remember a few of the old golf course maintenance guys who were pretty good about keeping it going.

We have many fountains around the lakes in the Woodlands, but this one is our signature fountain.  It’s the first thing guests see when driving through our main entrance as it certainly isn’t the tiny Woodlands Country Club sign.  The fountain sits prominently on our entrance circle, and when surrounded by flowers, it’s extremely eye-catching.

When broken and sitting in brown water, it is a reflection of a run-down community.

I hope that this fountain’s repair doesn’t take long, and we aren’t at the mercy of bureaucratic red-tape waiting for permits and bids from the city.   Let’s get this and all of our other common areas looking the way we all remember it.

These can be glorious times here in the Woodlands if we don’t get complacent about what drove us to buy here in the first place.