CITY NOT HAPPY WITH PAINT QUALITY, PUBLIC NOT HAPPY WITH COLOR
Recently the iconic orange water tower in Platte City received a new paint job. The goal was to match the previous orange color, which was closer in line with the official school color of the Platte County High School Pirate mascot.
But it didn’t turn out to match the previous orange on the tower and isn’t close to the school’s official orange. The finished product is a considerably lighter shade of orange than was on the tower previously.
The reason for the discrepancy is apparently due to the choice city officials made while looking at paint samples prior to the repainting.
“Apparently that is the color we picked,” Mayor Steve Hoeger told The Landmark. The mayor said he has been out of town the past couple of weeks, but shortly before leaving town he drove past the tower and thought to himself “that doesn’t look right.”
The mayor remarked that it’s tough to tell how the final product will appear based on looking at a 2 x 2 swatch of paint when picking out a color. He said city officials had been given the choice between two different shades of orange, and the paint that city officials chose is the one that got applied during the recently completed work.
The good news is that city officials say the tower will be repainted again in the next few months to better match the orange of old. And the added good news is that the corrective paint job will come at no additional cost to the city, Hoeger says.
The recently completed paint job was not done to the city’s satisfaction due to some areas where the tower “was not evenly painted” and some color fluctuations on the tower could be seen when it was completed, city officials told The Landmark.
When the city talked about the issue with the contractor, it was decided the contractor will repaint the tower at no further cost to the city, Hoeger said. And since they have to redo it, the contractor is “allowing us to pick the correct color this time,” Hoeger said.
Hoeger said Tom Cole, city administrator, has acquired the paint number for the shade of orange that the Platte County R-3 School District uses so that the upcoming repainting will better match the school’s orange.
“The contractor is repainting to fix the current paint job. The reason for the fix is the quality of the job but because they have to redo it, they are allowing us to pick the correct color this time,” Hoeger responded in a phone conversation with The Landmark on Friday, Dec. 13.
Cole had told The Landmark last Thursday that city officials had spotted uneven areas of the job and some color fluctuations, including areas where he said it appeared the primer was showing through the lighter shade of orange.
On Tuesday of this week, Cole told The Landmark that repainting should commence in a couple of months.
“We were flirting with challenging temperatures on round one, but absolutely need to wait for reliably warmer temps for the final effort,” the city administrator said.
Cole said the cost to repaint and complete mechanical, technical, and safety maintenance on a tower–which is needed every 30 years or so–is roughly $475,000, which the city budgeted.
REACTION ON
SOCIAL MEDIA
The reaction to the new shade of orange on the tower after the recent repainting was not positive.
The Landmark saw reactions on Facebook from local residents that ranged from:
“A little disappointed about Platte City’s iconic water tower. Much lighter orange than before. Wondering why they didn’t match the old orange color,” posted Diane Kottman Keck on Facebook.
*“Too coral,” wrote Tauy Hellebuyck Scott.
*“That’s not Pirate orange,” said Tammy Wallingford Workman.
*”Yikes,” wrote Julene Hill Jennings.
*“I’m color blind and I know that’s not right,” posted Shaun Terrance Stock.
*“Just not the same,” said Teri Peck.
*“It’s a giant pumpkin!” posted Heidi Rowland Curry.
*“It just looks wrong,” wrote Laura Rogge.
There were a couple of comments that were more favorable, including:
*“I like it,” posted by Peggy Harmon.
*“To me it’s not a big deal,” said Nancy McCoy.
SOME BACKGROUND
The tower, which is located at 1500 Branch Street (Hwy. 92 across from the high school), will also retain the black “Welcome to Platte City” lettering when the final job is completed, city officials say.
The contractor, American Suncraft, began on-site mobilization on Aug. 28. City officials say the project consisted of draining the tower, removing interior and exterior paint down to bare metal and repainting the entire tank.
Water tank exterior coatings have an expected life span of 25 to 30 years.
Before this year, the last time the tank exterior was repainted was 1993, although that process was an overcoat only and did not take the tank down to bare metal, according to city officials.
In the 1990s, repainting of the tower caused some controversy in the community for a time. Originally, city officials had considered a plan to change the orange color, but after getting some pushback from the community the city opted to stick with orange for the repainting project at that time.
There was no public discussion of any color change this time around.
The interior of the tank is cleaned with paint touch up on a regular basis with the last interior cleaning/touch up occurring in 2021.
The most visible part of the recent cleaning and painting project was the installation of a containment drape to shroud the entire tower. The containment drape allows the contractor to contain and capture the abrasives used to remove the paint as well as all of the removed paint particles.
The drape contains and recovers removal particles and prevents paint overspray.
In addition to the 250,000 gallon orange tower, the city also has a 1.6 million gallon water standpipe east of I-29.
