KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It seems like the whole town has been painted blue — a well deserved tribute to the Kansas City Royals who have been on a roll, making the most of the club’s first playoff appearance in 29 years by advancing to the American League Championship Series.
There’s a science of sorts, behind the City of Fountains and its Royals fever.
“They said they needed some blue and how fast can I get it ready!” said Waymon Hofheins, the president of Blue Valley Labs, a local company that makes all Kansas City’s fountain dye.
“We have six fountains that are blue right now, and I know there’s a few others throughout town that have turned theirs blue also, some private groups,” said the maintenance superintendent for Kansas City Parks and Recreation, Patrick McNamara.
He says they take care of all the city’s fountains on a daily basis.
“All 48 of them, we take care of them and treat them and make sure that they stay pretty for the public, and then we have our side step here where we have to turn six of them blue as long as the Royals are in it!” McNamara explained.
Hofheins says he’s worked with the Parks and Recreation Department for a long time on various water treatment projects, including dying the fountains a variety of colors.
“We have blue, pink, orange, gold, and teal,” said Hofheins, a chemist and microbiologist, “I’m a science nerd!”
And he’s the man behind the blue fountains all around the metro.
“It’s basic chemistry, basic organic chemistry,” added Hofheins.
Hofheins said he had to make extra blue dye, and make it quickly, to make enough dye for the fountains to stay blue.
“We sold out three times in fountain colors,” Hofheins said, “We try to standardize about one gallon per thousand gallons so that it’s the same dosage for all the colors, even though the dye intensity might be different.”
His company develops the formulations, bottles the dye, then labels it.
“We’ll do a couple hundred gallons in a day,” Hofheins said.
McNamara says all together it costs a few hundred dollars to turn it blue, and about 100 dollars a day to keep it blue.
“We haven’t been in this spot for a while, and if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, or the Royals in the playoffs, it’s all the same thing, this town loves it’s sports,” McNamara said.
McNamara says there is a campaign to renovate the fountains right now, and the funds raised from dying the fountains will go toward renovating and maintaining them.
