By Jill Fennema

In the summer of 1982, the City of Edgerton decided to take it upon themselves to build a new water tower for Edgerton.  At the time of the decision, Charles Walhof was the mayor. Dr. Rolland Beckering, Ed Obbink, and Howard Van Essen were on the council. 

At that time, Edgerton was served with water from a few wells. The water tower was located near where city hall is now located.  

The council had discussed the city wells and pumps.  After that meeting, Spartz and Sons Well Diggers were invited to come to Edgerton to talk about the city’s water supplies. 

A new well had been dug northwest of town in 1976. The older wells south of the cemetery had been pumping water, but the employees wondered if their production could be improved. Spartz could not say much about those wells as they did not dig them and could not find blueprints or information on the wells. They suggested that the city look into a new, bigger pump at the new well to increase the water production there. 

In June 1982, the Edgerton Enterprise reported that the city had secured $300,000 to pay for the water tower project. Master Tank Company out of Slayton was hired to build the new tower. 

A month later, the engineer in charge reported to the council that Master Tank Co. had been plagued by damaged equipment and delays in getting material. They asked for a two month extension on the project, which the council granted. Fabrication of the tower was expected to take two to three weeks once the work began on site. The new completion date was set at November 1, 1982. 

About 70 yards of concrete were poured at the new water tower site. This, with the reinforcing rod, provided the foundation for the tower. 

The materials, which were specially ordered from Bethlehem Steel in Indiana, had been scheduled to arrive in Marshall at the end of July. 

The sheets of steel came in pieces as large as 60’ by 12’, with the thinnest sheets being 3/16-inch thick. These thin pieces were for the roof of the tower. The thickest sheets were 1-inch thick and were used for part of the conical base. 

All the pieces of steel were cut and rolled at Master Tank, according to David Webb, owner of Master Tank. The sheets were laid out in their yard and “flame cut” and then rolled into columns with a gigantic roller which can handle steel up to 4-inches thick. 

The pieces were then low-hydrogen welded together, many with an automatic welder, and x-rayed to make sure proper welds were made. 

After fabrication, the tower arrived in Edgerton in 10 pieces: the cone shaped base, the column, the bowl (the bottom of the tank), the six side pieces of the tank, and the roof.  Five workers were responsible for erecting the tower. 

As of Tuesday, August 3, 1982, the riser pipe and part of the cone-shaped base had been built.

Work took longer than expected. There were days of snow and too much wind. In the end, the tower was finally completed by the end of November and was not filled immediately. There was some concern at that time that water mains might burst because of the additional water pressure the tower would provide.  The tower holds 150,000 gallons of water.

People were advised to watch their water usage. Because the water would have more pressure, more water would come out of the faucet in less time than before. Once the tower was filled, the Enterprise did not report any major problems other than that some pumps had to be replaced.

The additional water pressure required that the city purchase two new pumps. Those cost an additional $8,000 at that time. One was installed at the old water tower in the center of town, and the other at the well northwest of town.

The next summer, the tower was painted blue. At that time, about 52 people complained that their vehicles got paint on them when the wind carried the paint from the water tower. Master Tank had insurance to cover the damages. 

However, because of that problem, the city had withheld part of its payment to Master Tank. A few days later the owner came to town and threatened to quit if he was not paid at least part of the bill. The city gave him $6,000 of the $11,000 due, withholding $5,000 until the paint claims were paid. 

Master Tank also agreed to a five year maintenance contract for the tower in lieu of paying penalties for getting the tower done so many weeks after the deadline. 

The water tower has been painted two times since it was built. It is scheduled to have maintenance work done to it as part of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan. The plan is to sandblast and coat the interior and exterior of the tower, preform some miscellaneous repairs and make sure that all is OSHA compliant. That cost is expected to be $250,000.