Christian Tuminski, CFNN Editor/Reporter, and Laniya Bell, CFNN Reporter

Well, Colts, I have to confess. When Mr. Edkins approached me and a few other seniors to help survey some locations for some fancy new water fountains, I had my doubts. However, it’s safe to say that my doubts have been put to rest, and our new principal has certainly delivered.

About two weeks ago, our group (Myself, Eli Benbienek, Lily Terwilliger, Vinitcio Estrada-Zerhoudi and MarQuail James) went with Principal Brian Edkins to pick out some locations for new water fountains around the school. We were told that the school had enough money to afford three of these new, special fountains.

The first two locations were decided on rather unanimously: The main hall near the library and near the student entrance/auxiliary gym across the school from the main hall. 

However, the third sparked a bit of a debate as our group of junior surveyors had a disagreement over whether the last fountain should be placed on the new wing, or in the cafeteria. In the end, the cafeteria won. 

Thankfully, our minds were put at ease. On February 26, when the first of the new fountains were installed in the main hall, I was able to catch our principal outside Mrs. Canady’s room, where he expressed, rather happily, that via the clever use of Amazon, he was able to, “Save about two hundred dollars on each of the first three fountains and afford the fourth fountain.” 

The water fountains are a model of Elkay ezH20 (specifically, the LZS8WSLP, but don’t ask me what all those numbers and letters mean) which utilize sensors to detect when a bottle is placed underneath the fountain, and aside from being a normal fountain, it can fill water bottles up to three times faster and with minimal splashing. 

My colleague, Laniya Bell, was able to ask Principal Edkins some further questions on the subject. This, according to the Principal, has been in the planning stage since midway through the first semester.

According to him, the driving factor was environmental. “The greatest goal is to try to make people conscious of the environment and get away from using single-serve plastic water bottles” stated Principal Edkins. “Each of the fountains has a count of how many water bottles it saves and keeps out of landfills.”

I admit my own skepticism. In my time at Cape Fear, the only major renovations have been the addition of a fence and the removal of several bathroom stalls. However the first of the new water fountains is here, and in record time, so I and many others are pleasantly surprised. In the words of our principal, “Doesn’t it just feel great to see a plan come to fruition?”