Five years and counting is far too long to wait for someone to turn on the water.

That’s how long it’s been since the decorative fountains in the centre median of University Ave., just north of Queen St., have worked, which has people wondering about the delay.

We first wrote about them in 2010, a year after the three fountains were shut down because water was seeping from the pools surrounding them into the Osgoode subway station below.

At the time, we were told that a retrofit would be done in 2011. That date was missed, along with at least one other set by the city, leaving them to become a receptacle for windblown trash.

A lot of people have noticed that it’s been a long time since water splashed through the fountains, including Mark Lockington, who emailed us about it.

“Why is the chain link fence still up, four or five years later, and the fountains still not operating at Queen and University?” asked Lockington.

We were curious too, since the city told us in 2011 that the retrofit would be tendered “soon,” and the work would start shortly after. It sounded highly optimistic, which seems to have been the case.

STATUS: Steve O’Bright, a supervisor of capital projects with the city, said that restoring the fountains has been one of the most frustrating projects he’s been involved in. The $830,000 retrofit was finally completed earlier this year and the fountains were turned on for one glorious week in June, just long enough to identify a mechanical problem involving valves, said O’Bright. It resulted in a dispute with the contractor, he said, which has since escalated to litigation that could potentially take years to resolve. The city is now pursuing other ways to resolve it, including the Construction Lien Act and cashing in the performance bonds posted by the contractor, he said. Ironically, the valve problems are “nothing complicated,” said O’Bright, adding it is still possible that the fountains could operate for a while in the fall, before they’re shut down for the season. But until the standoff with the contractor is resolved, the fencing around the fountains will remain and they won’t be turned on, he said.