CUMMING — It appears there won’t be a fountain at the front of the new Forsyth County Courthouse after all.

The Forsyth County Development Authority, which approved the project last month, learned Thursday that it won’t be possible.

Authority Chairman David Seago reported that the area failed tests conducted by county staff, meaning a drainage system cannot be installed.

“We voted last meeting to install the drainage system, so the first thing the county had to do — and they just went ahead and did this because they knew it had to be done — they did a perk test on that site,” he said. “Well, guess what? It didn’t perk.

“It doesn’t perk, so we can’t use a drainage system, and the other systems you could use are very expensive so at this point … our fountain is not going to happen.”

The authority had planned to use fees received from developers — not taxpayer funds — for the fountain, which was estimated to cost about $150,000 including the drainage system.

The authority had also joined with area Rotary Clubs to help secure additional funding needed for the fountain and for several benches in the area around it.

Seago said plans for the benches will move forward and he and Bobby Thomas, who came up with the idea for the fountain, will explore other options for some focal point at the facility’s entrance. They encouraged the other members to do the same.

“We need to start thinking about what else we would like to do,” Seago said.

“Now we have some time to think about this and we still have the bench [project] and the Rotary Clubs want to be involved with that … and I would still like for us to do something,” Seago said.

Thomas asked the other members to think about ideas that could be used to “make that area a focal point.”

The new courthouse is slated to be finished by early 2015.