City of Ocheyedan, Iowa Renovates 110-Year-Old Water Tower

“The paint started falling off the tank several years ago and they said it was thermal shock,” said City of Ocheyedan Water Superintendent Kerry Glade. “They said that we could patch it, keep patching it, but we’d probably be chasing it around the tank after every winter. We didn’t know what to do after that.”

Pre-Renovation Photos

“Jake stopped over here and he said that we could repaint that thing,” said Glade. “We’d have to put a containment up and we could finance it if we needed it financed. We’d work with you on that. We visited about it. We didn’t have a whole lot of money in our water budget because we just put a mile and a half of water line in from our well to town. That pretty much chewed up all the reserves in our water budget.”

“I wanted to do it, and when the council signed that contract I thought well, this will be my last big project,” said Glade. “We’ve had good councils here that have always tried to keep up their infrastructure and get work done. Try to stay ahead of things. It has been kind of a struggle with the money but they usually get things done. Just like this project here.”

Renovation Photos

“Jake thought we could sandblast it. Start all over,” said Glade. “It had lead paint on it and we knew we had to have a containment. These buildings are just right there.”

“It was a really good crew! We’d watch them climb around on that thing with their ropes,” said Glade. “It is just so much work. All the labor that it took to get that thing put together. It was a good outfit we had here.”

Post-Renovation Photos

“A water tower won’t wear out,” said Glade. “There are no moving parts in them actually, so if you just maintain it, it will last forever. A new tower would cost a million dollars. I can’t remember just what this cost, but it was way under that.”

“Everyone was pretty happy with how it turned out and they know that it should last for another 110 years!” said Glad. “It has withstood the test of time.”