Chesterfield is looking at pulling the plug on possible installation of an expensive water fountain and irrigation system at the new intersection of Highway 141 at Olive Boulevard.

After looking at cost estimates for both, a City Council committee is expected to nix them both for cost reasons. The committee is looking at landscaping options at the intersection, which is set to become the northeast gateway into the city.

The planning and public works committee will likely vote on Feb. 23 on a recommendation for total project funding. The recommendation would then be taken up by the full City Council.

Matt Segal, who represents Ward 1 and is on the committee, said the council had set aside $400,000 in its budget for landscaping, not just for that intersection but also for Ladue Road and its new intersection with Highway 141. The committee is considering an addition of up to $40,000 to that figure, he said.

"One proposal we looked at was installing an irrigation system for Olive and 141," Segal said.

Mike Geisel, director of planning, public works and parks, said the city's landscaping price tag at the site already was expected to total up to $198,000.

The Missouri Department of Transportation already plans to provide plantings valued at $193,148 at the new intersection, whether or not the city provides more trees and shrubs there.

Geisel warned the committee the condition of non-irrigated landscaping will differ in color and appearance from what the site would look like if it were irrigated. But he's still recommending the city forego irrigation of that intersection, which would have added about $351,607 more to the total anticipated cost.

However, without irrigation, some allocation of funding will have to be provided for periodic watering of plants from a tanker truck during the initial planting period, Geisel told the committee.

Because of lack of irrigation, the site will be seeded, not sodded, to help reduce costs, he said. If the city doesn't irrigate that property, replacement of about 20 percent of the plantings is estimated after the first two years, he said.

The committee also looked at the possibility of a possible water fountain at the Olive-141 site. Geisel said any fountain there could be similar to one maintained by the city and built in 2004 at the Dierbergs Meditation Park, at Olive and River Valley Drive.

Dierbergs spent more than $450,000 in 2004 to build the fountain only, not including design, access to water, site work and signs, he said. Geisel estimated it would cost at least $600,000 now for the city to build a similar water feature at the 141 location.

"That figure is exorbitantly high, and we shouldn't consider it," Segal said.

Geisel agreed, saying water features "are dramatic aesthetic elements, but they are notoriously expensive to maintain and operate."