Despite her best efforts, State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman has been unable to find someone to ‘adopt’ this fountain outside The Boca Raton resort, which is caring for it now. Boca Raton city officials recently said ‘No thanks.’ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Mary Hladky
State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman thought she had very exciting news to share with the Boca Raton City Council.
Palm Beach County was willing to donate to the city a tiny parcel of land inside a roundabout on Camino Real that is outside the main entrance to The Boca Raton resort.
That meant the city would have control over a lovely but modest fountain built about 100 years ago inside the roundabout by Clarence Geist, the resort’s second owner.
Delivering her report to the council at its April 14 meeting, Gossett-Seidman assumed city officials would be thrilled.
Under city ownership, she reasoned, the fountain would get more tender, loving care. And it would lose the moniker she had given it — “the sad little orphan fountain.”
Until sleuthing initiated by Gossett-Seidman revealed information dating to the early 1900s that showed the fountain land belonged to the county, county officials were unaware.
The revelation, though, didn’t much interest them.
It turns out that the city is none too interested, either.
In a May email to Gossett-Seidman, City Manager Mark Sohaney said city officials appreciate her work and recognize the historic and aesthetic value of the fountain.
However, “the city currently does not have an identified municipal use or operational framework that would support assuming ownership and the long-term maintenance responsibilities that would come with it,” he wrote.
“The poor little fountain,” said Gossett-Seidman, whose district includes Boca Raton. “100 years old and it has no home.”
“It’s an example of what I try to avoid in government, going around and around,” she added. “It’s not my style.”
For the time being, the status quo will prevail. The resort will continue to maintain the fountain and assume its water and electricity bills.
But a grander vision for the fountain and landscaping improvements that had been in the works are on hold.
“We are working with state and local officials to solidify a thoughtful plan for what the next chapter will be,” Sara Geen Hill, the resort’s director of marketing, said in an email.
Gossett-Seidman isn’t walking away, either. “I’ll be working on it,” she said in mid-May.
But first, she had to get back to her day job. She had just been called to Tallahassee for a special legislative session.
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