Carrollton to break ground on new water tower
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By Carmen Ensinger
Carrollton Mayor Mike Snyder and the rest of the Carrollton City Council cordially invites everyone to a groundbreaking ceremony next Friday, Sept. 10, at 3 p.m.
The city purchased land on Illinois State Highway Rt. 108, at the west edge of town, across from the Tri-County FS Facility to erect the new water tower last year. The old water tower will be razed once the new tower becomes operational, which is expected to be in the summer of 2022.
“We have waited a long time for this project to get off the ground and you might have noticed work crews preparing the ground for the tower for the past month,” Carrollton Mayor Mike Snyder said. “But now, you are going to start seeing the actual tower going up and we would like to share this once in a lifetime occasion with as many Carrollton residents as possible.”
If this tower lasts as long as the current water tower, then it will, truly, be a once in a lifetime event. Documents were found in city hall by former City Clerk Ryan Scott that document the current water tower being erected in 1924.
Scott found the document, from the Chicago Bridge and Iron Works, that erected the 100,000 gallon elevated storage tank, tucked away in the vault at city hall. Total cost to construct this tower in 1924 was $9,820. Considerably more than the $1.65 million price tag for the current tank being constructed by Caldwell Tank out of Louisville, Ky.
The city received two bids for the new water tower with Caldwell Tank submitting the low bid of $1.65 million. They were awarded the project at the January meeting.
To pay for the project, the city obtained a low-interest one-percent IEPA loan in the amount of $1.7 million payable over the next 20 years with $400,000 of this amount forgivable.
“They should have the tank completed by this November,” Mayor Snyder said. “But because they can’t do the painting on it until the weather warms this spring, it won’t be put in operation until next summer.”
The new tank will hold more than twice the amount of water as the old tank at 250,000 gallons.
The concrete footings to hold such a tall and massive structure, especially when it is completely full of water, go down more 40 feet into the ground, 46 to be exact. To put into perspective, that is more than four stories below the surface of the earth. The structure itself will reach 160 feet into the sky when completed.
Snyder said a whole list of dignitaries has been invited to the groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 10 including Rep. Rodney Davis., Sen. Steve McClure and Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer. Members of Benton and Associates, who were engineers on the project will also be in attendance as well as members of the Carrollton City Council. Everyone from the local area is invited to attend this once in a lifetime event.
Parking has been made available at the Tri-County FS Facility in front of the seed storage building along 11th Street.
