By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Residents of Victoria saw a big change to the city's skyline this month as a new water tower rose from the ground as a part of a major water system project in the city.
As city council members met last Monday, the top of the tower was being welded to the base.
"Once that is welded on, they have one more pipe to go inside the tank," said Brad Schmidtberger, city superintendent.
He said they planned to complete the welding in order to move into the next step last week.
"They have had their welds X-rayed." Schmidtberger said, "So, it's moving along."
While the tower construction is progressing, aesthetics concerns were raised at the meeting.
"Originally we talked about white," Schmidtberger told the council. "But I would shy away from that."
"A white tower is fairly common," he said. "But I will say that I went and physically drove to look at Hoisington's — it's been up for about four or five years...it's actually brown."
He said blowing dust sticks to the outside causing the white paint to not come through as well as other colors.
"All white is going to be brown in not very long," Schmidtberger said. “When dust blows, tanks sweat and then the dust blows and sticks to it."
He said while looking into blue and silver options, a classic-colored silver tower would be significantly higher in cost due to the style of paint and the application method required.
"It's a whole different process and a whole different style of paint," Schmidtberger said.
"You have some other color choices, but you have to narrow it down quite a bit because they just don't use very many colors," he said.
He said towers that he looked at that used one of two blue colors available were holding up well.
"They hold the color a little better and the reflectivity is good," Schmidtberger said.
Outside of aesthetics, he said the reflectivity is a large factor to consider as it keeps the water temperature in the tank cooler, and helps the paint to retain its color.
Outside of the practical benefits of a blue color, Schmidtberger said it may help smooth over the hard-feelings of some of the area residents.
"The benefit of the blue is we know not everybody is really happy with the tower next to their house," he said. "I think the more that you can blend this into the scenery and so forth...the better it will be accepted."
"The whole idea of the blue is to blend in with the surroundings," he said. "That's the whole idea."
As council members considered the tower color options, the proposed logo that was to be placed on the tower was also discussed.
"I don't know if those colors are going to go with the blue," said council member Dustin Schumacher.
Mayor John Schulte told the council the logo could be removed and block lettering for the name of the town used instead.
The placement of the logo on the rounded top was also mentioned as a concern.
"It's a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be," said councilman Ryan Lichter.
The smaller than envisioned top would force the logo to wrap either lower or higher than the midpoint of the top of the tower.
"I was always worried about how that would look in three dimensions anyway," Schulte said. "It would either look really cool or not cool at all."
The council was going to explore the options with the contractors and make a decision at a later time, but overall Schmidtberger said the project is progressing as planned.
"It's been moving along (well), everything has been going OK," he said. "We haven't had any disasters, but we are getting to the little bit that makes me a little nervous because we are starting to drill holes in the reservoir building...but so far everything has been good and I am happy with the crews."
Schmidtberger also said major pipework has already been completed.
"The four-inch inbound line is essentially done," he said.
While they continue hooking up smaller lines, the 12-inch line to the water tower has also been installed, save for a tie-in.
"And then essentially that part of the water project will be pretty much complete," Schmidtberger said.
