Water tower painting project nearly complete

A precarious position: Worker in crane basket on the side of the water tower during painting. Photos courtesy of Thomas Thompson.

After a seven-week process, Manchester's water tower is fully repainted and refurbished, ready to continue serving the community for years to come.

"The tower itself was constructed in 1968 and has been painted a few times, both inside and out," said Thomas Thompson, superintendent of the water treatment facility. "According to state inspections, which are done annually, there were several upgrades needed this time, along with the painting."

The water department has known about this need for a few years now and the village has been able to budget the roughly $200,000 cost for the entire project. In addition to painting inside and out, the village replaced the seals on the roof hatches, added a valve to the overflow discharge pipe, and added a sampling tap, as well as some interior lighting upgrades.

The tower was taken off line and the tank emptied on April 19, and work started on April 20 with workers cleaning out debris, removing rust, and preparing for painting. So for the past several weeks, Manchester has relied on its three wells, with pumps, at various stations throughout the village, that use groundwater to supply water to residents. "One of the pumps has run continuously throughout this time, and it has the capacity to speed up or slow down according to demand," Thompson explained.

Another thing that ran continuously for much of the past six weeks were generators. Thompson and Village Manager Jeff Wallace both commented that the neighboring homes were subject to a lot of extra noise during that time due to the generators being required to keep the interior surfaces dry while painting was ongoing.

"We know it was an inconvenience and we appreciate everyone's patience," Wallace said.

There were three actual segments of the painting process. On the inside of the tower there is the "wet interior," where the water is actually stored. There's also a "dry interior" which includes the ladder and staff access. And of course, the exterior, which is the part everyone sees. Workers allotted roughly 35 days to complete the project and it should be pretty well done at the end of that time.

"We are almost done," Thompson says. "Just a few minor things to finish up, and then, a final inspection. Then we will disinfect the tank before putting it back into service."

Since the village already has three wells, and hasn't missed the water tower since the tank has been offline, what is the purpose of having a water tower, anyway? According to Thompson there are two main reasons: extra storage, in case a large volume of water is needed (particularly when fighting a fire). The second reason is that it provides pressure to the system. With 300,000 gallons of water sitting up there, that's plenty of pressure. Thompson says the water department tries to maintain 60 PSI pressure out of the filter building (located beneath the tower).

So, the Manchester water tower is looking fresh and new these days, thanks to some great work by contractors and the professional service of the Village's water department. Next time you turn on your faucet and water magically comes out, you'll understand a little more of what has gone on behind the scenes to make that happen.

Early on in the process, cold and damp weather required running generators 24/7 to dehumidify the interior of the tank while painting.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.