Committee turns off well water

Created: 06/26/2022, 17:25

By: Peter Schiebel

Even when it was still running, the wall of water on the bastion on the church square was a point of contention.

Now it is being shut down.

© ike

What was the argument in Starnberg about the church square and the fountains there, especially about the water wall at the so-called bastion.

That's it now.

Starnberg

– Around ten years after the church square was redesigned, the water in the upper fountain, the so-called bastion, is finally turned off.

The city council's building committee decided on Thursday evening with 8:4 votes to take the water wall out of operation.

The other two water features in the lower part of the church square - wave pool and Marienbrunnen - are not affected.

The initiative came from Deputy Mayor Angelika Kammerl.

The running costs of the system were too high for the CSU city councillor.

At the beginning of the year, the city administration had already presented a list according to which a good 99,000 euros had been spent on maintenance work and more than 47,000 euros on repair work for the entire fountain system - bastion, wave pool, Marienbrunnen - over the past ten years.

"That's disproportionately high for me," said Kammerl, especially since in her eyes the bastion was not functional anyway.

There is a massive algae problem, which is being counteracted with very heavy use of chlorine, which in turn leads to damage to the well.

Soon climbing plants instead of rippling water?

Instead of the water wall, a trellis with a flowering climbing plant should beautify the bastion, suggested Kammerl.

And the city should put the money saved in the fountain in the roundabout in front of the Bayerischer Hof - "it's historically valuable".

Kammerl did not receive much counter-speech in the committee.

Only Josef Pfister (BMS) explained that the church square was "great considering all the circumstances".

"Water is the invigorating element, please keep it flowing," he said.

Mayor Patrick Janik replied that Pfister was “the first non-architect” he met who talked about the church square in this way.

"We should basically think about the church square," he said and suggested a cross-party working group.

Working group to develop new ideas for the square

This is now to develop ideas for the church square together with residents and business people.

The building committee decided to form the working group with only one dissenting vote (Franz Heidinger, BLS).

In the course of the talks, it should also be clarified to what extent the authorship of the architect must be taken into account, explained Janik.

The city is also seeking legal advice on this issue.