'Iconic fixture for the village': Why Dunlap is building a new $2.4 million water tower
DUNLAP – The long process of erecting a new water tower is underway in Dunlap.
After weeks of welding pieces together on-site, workers set the top of the tower in place early Thursday morning, but months of work remain before the tower will be filled.
“It could be September, October, November before this project is done,” said Dunlap village superintendent Dale Bishop. "There’s a lot of piping, there’s a lot of welding and griding, and all the internal parts have to go in. We got a long way to go.”
The solution to low water pressure
Village officials have been working on a solution to the city’s low water pressure for years, said Mayor Jack Esterdahl.
"We were going to do a water line down Route 91 to add a second water line, and then the pandemic came along,” he said. "That kind of put everything on the back burner, and by the time the pandemic was winding down, we had all heard in the news of how things had increased in price, so we checked with our engineering firm to get another estimate and the pipeline alone had gone up almost $800,000. That led us to start to think about a water tower instead.”
Priced at $2.4 million vs. almost $4 million to run a water line, the water tower was an easy decision. There were also a number of people who wanted the community to continue to have a water tower, Esterdahl said.
“They think it’s kind of iconic fixture for the village," he said. “People come into town and use it as a landmark. They look and see what color it is, what the wording is, so there were several people that really wanted us to go with the water tower.”
New tower, same look
Though it’s larger, the new water tower will look a lot like the old one. It will be painted blue, and the city’s name will be spelled out in black.
“It’s very expensive to do anything fancy with your water tower," said Esterdahl. “Some people wanted us to go with maroon and gold, because it’s the high school colors, but we decided to stay with the blue because facts tell us that blue holds up better. White towers will start to show the dirt, and other colors will need to be refinished sooner.”
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The old water tower was erected in the 1950s or '60s, holds 50,000 gallons of water. The new 200,000-gallon tower will improve water pressure for the growing community.
“A 50,000-gallon tank, at the time it was built, sufficed for the village which was probably around 600 people at the time,” said Esterdahl. “Once the Copperfield subdivision came along and got developed, which started in the '90s and really picked up mid-2000s to 2015, our population grew to just under 1,600.”
Pressure problems get worse when the four schools in the village are operating.
“There’s over three thousand people in four schools. That almost doubles the population of the village when school is in session,” said Esterdahl.
An amazing project
Since the water tower is close to a grade school, workers have had an audience during much of the project.
“I was sending text messages to my daughter-in-law this morning because she works at the school. I was letting her know when the top was being put on,” said Bishop, who has enjoyed every minute of the project.
“I’ve been the water man in Dunlap for a long time, and this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” said Bishop. “But I am so into water towers, it’s ridiculous. To watch one get built is absolutely amazing.”
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Leslie Renken can be reached at (309) 370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Dunlap building new water tower to improve village water pressure
