due to a lack of cash needed to complete the project.

The plans to build a plaza and computerised fountain -- with an estimated price tag of $1.5 to $2 million -- had been in the works for nearly five years.

In December of 1999, the Bank of Bermuda donated $750,000 to the project and this year $132,000 was allocated to the Millennium fund to cover Customs duty on incoming fountain materials -- but there was still not enough money in the coffers to complete the project.

"We've been unable to raise the additional funds needed to complete the project,'' Millennium Committee chairman Jay Bluck told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Mr. Bluck declined to put a dollar figure to the funding shortfall, saying only that it was "substantial''.

But he said the Bank of Bermuda has decided to allow the Committee to retain donated funds to be used toward other projects. "We hope someday the (fountain) project will proceed,'' said Mr. Bluck. "All the plans are ready to go if funds became available.'' And he said that the funds allocated to the project in this year's Government budget had been "anticipatory'' and fountain supplies the funding intended to cover duty on had not been received.

The Millennium Fountain project gained planning approval in 1999 but had been part of the plans to mark the Millennium since the Committee's formation in 1996.

It had been hoped that the plaza and fountain would eventually serve as a gathering place and venue for musical performances, poetry readings and other entertainment.

Had plans gone ahead, the washrooms at the park would have been removed in order to create space for a plaza, fountain and interactive wall with information on influential Bermudians.

The fountain was also intended to vary the display of water to complement music being played when it was on.

"It is quite a complex project to build a computerised fountain,'' said Mr.

Bluck.

Millennium fountain plan scrapped "It requires an awful lot of engineering and that is part of what made it such an expensive project to begin with. There were suggestions that we make the fountain less elaborate but it was not really the kind of project that could be scaled down.'' "Basically, there'll be no change to the park,'' said Mr. Bluck. "One or two shrubs have been moved but those would have been replaced anyway.'' And he said that lawn will be put down on the space in the park previously allocated for the fountain.

Despite disappointment over the cancellation of the plan, Mr. Bluck said the committee had been happy with the support it received from the Corporation of Hamilton, the Parks department, George Ogden and others involved.

The committee is now in the process of deciding what to do with the funds remaining that were allocated to the project.

"There will be announcements from the Millennium Committee within a month or two,'' said Mr. Bluck.