City looking to repaint Corporate Drive water tower by spring

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

A new city logo and a fresh coat of paint could be in the future for the Corporate Drive water tower in Charles City come spring.

The tower was built in 2004 and is starting to show some rust, according to Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Cory Spieker.

“It’s maintenance that needs to be done to protect the investment,” said Spieker, who took over as head of the water treatment plant in 2015.

“We’re looking to increase the longevity of the tower,” he said. “Obviously, any metal, if you let it go – you can read stories of water towers collapsing.”

The million-gallon Corporate Drive water tower sits southeast of the Southwest Development Park, where businesses like the Trelleborg tire plant and Winnebago Industries are located.

“I’m hoping to get it done in the spring before it gets too hot and we really need the towers back up,” said Spieker. “Once it starts getting hot, our pumpage goes up and we need that tower.”

Spieker said the cost to build the tower 15 years ago was $1.3 million. That structure, along with Charles City’s other water tower near Charles Street, were both inspected in August 2016 by Dixon Engineering.

That inspection stated that the exterior on the Corporate Drive tower was slightly faded, but new paint being applied shouldn’t have an adhesion problem.

“They do tests to see how well the paint will stick at this point. You let it go too far then you’re talking complete sandblasting and complete overcoat. We’re to the point where we can touch up the bad spots and overcoat it – potentially save a lot of money just keeping the maintenance up,” said Spieker.

The City Council recently approved an RFP (request for proposal) that will be done by Dixon for around $23,000 to be able to receive bids for the project.

“They will be onsite as it’s getting pressure washed as all the work is being done to make sure we’re getting what we’re paying for,” Spieker added. “You can see rust break through on there. So it will be grinded down, primed and painted.”

Dixon has estimated the cost of the project to run $237,000. That work would include spot power tool cleaning and recoating the exterior with a polyurethane system. Included in that estimate is work to touch up the dry interior with an epoxy system for $15,000 and the installation of a screen flap gate on the overflow pipe discharge for $2,000.

A floating ring for cathodic protection would also be installed inside the wet interior of the clear well. The price on putting that mechanism in the tank is $20,000.

“In generic terms, it’s basically like a sacrificial piece of metal you put in the tower. That corrodes instead of the tower,” said Spieker.

For an additional cost, the new city logo or different lettering could be added to the Corporate Drive tank.

Spieker showed council members several different logos and lettering possibilities at their planning session Monday evening. The price to get those painted on to the water tank ranged anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000.

The current black lettering on the water tower reads “Charles City” and sits on a blue and teal background.

“This is the one you see from the highway. This is the one that represents the city, I guess,” said Spieker.

Several at the planning workshop proposed the city’s logo be put up on the water tower, along with some combination of lettering that read “Charles City” along the clear well.

“The way the council’s leaning is to include the new logo along with ‘Charles City’ up there,” said City Administrator Steve Diers.

The city’s new logo was recently unveiled and features a representation of Charles City’s new suspension bridge in the logo’s blue, orange and green. Council members, along with Diers, City Engineer John Fallis, City Attorney Brad Sloter and City Clerk Trudy O’Donnell all looked at the proposed designs.

“If we’re going to make it look nice, we might as well draw attention to it,” said Mayor Dean Andrews.

There was discussion of placing LED lights on the tower to illuminate it so motorists could clearly see it when driving on the Avenue of the Saints or on Highway 14 at night.

Spieker said he contacted one other city that placed uplighting on its tower and that cost was approximately $12,000. He also said the LED lights could change colors.

Andrews said, “When you’re driving by at nighttime when it’s lit, you definitely pay attention.”

Spieker stated the timing of the painting of the water tower had nothing to do with the city trying to promote its new logo. He said it just worked out that the tower happened to need new paint and that coincided with the new city logo being unveiled.

“It provides clean, safe drinking water to the entire city. If we’re going to paint it, why not give it a fresh look. It’s due, it’s time,” he said.

The Charles Street Water Tower was built in 1972 and was last painted in 2006. Spieker said a repaint job on that could be planned in the next five or seven years. There is no lettering or design artwork on that tower.

The idea of putting the Charles City School District’s Comet logo on the Charles Street tower was also discussed. There was also talk of the Comet logo being placed on the Corporate Drive tower.

Andrews said that he would talk to school Superintendent Mike Fisher on Thursday about what he thought about the Comet logo and placement of it on the towers.