By SHELLEY HILL
The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Fountains seem to be everywhere here, spurting from bronze dolphins and winged seahorses at City Hall, Greek gods and mermaids in the main shopping district, even around the ballpark scoreboard.

Kansas City calls itself ''The City of Fountains,'' not just because it has so many of them, but because they all are so different, fitting into the labyrinthine landscape of the city's parks and boulevards.

While many have been around for decades -- the oldest active one was built in 1899 -- there are several newer ones and still more in the works.

''It's a huge team effort and it continues to be after they're up and running,'' says Anita Gorman, a member of the City of Fountains Foundation, a private fund-raising group. ''They have to have people watching over them all the time.''

As to just how many fountains there are in the City of Fountains, no one can say. The parks department oversees about 40 public ones.

''There are so many that are on private grounds and corporations that nobody knows,'' Mrs. Gorman says.

The city's first fountains, at the turn of the century, were not meant to be works of art. In fact, they weren't even meant for people. They were drinking fountains for horses and dogs.

Nowadays, visitors can find everything from a long reflecting pool along the mansion-like homes of Ward Parkway, near the Country Club Plaza, to a friendly muse with a net full of fish in the middle of town.

Some fountains are memorials, tributes to Vietnam veterans, Eagle Scouts and city firefighters killed in the line of duty. Others are just for fun, such as sculptures of children playing near the city's waterworks building and the square of 30-foot high dancing waters at Crown Center. One park has a fountain that doubles as a wading pool.

Visitors can make reservations for a guided, two-hour tour (by car or trolley) that takes in about 25 of the best-known public fountains in the greater Kansas City area.

One recent trip began at the Country Club Plaza, a pioneer of the American shopping mall built to look like Seville, Spain.

Some of the most popular fountains are here, including the 8,000-pound cast lead sculpture of Neptune raising his trident and guiding his seahorse-drawn chariot.

There's also the goddess Diana gathered with children in front of a cascading waterfall, and a group of fauns, half-human, half-goat beings, sitting around a small rectangular pool.

You'll hear some people say that Kansas City has more fountains than any other city, including Rome.

''That's the height of podunk,'' the tour driver said dismissively.

Mrs. Gorman has her own theory: ''Rome had more, but they all don't work.''

INFORMATION

www.kansascity.com