Vote for This Southern Indiana Water Tower to Win ‘Water Tank of the Year’

You've probably driven past hundreds of water towers and never put much thought into them unless it has some type of distinguishing characteristic. Most towers are usually one color like grey, white, or some shade of green with the name of the town it serves or the company that operates it. However, some people see it as a canvas they can use to jazz up the skyline a bit. One of those is in southern Indiana and is currently in the running to be the "Water Tank of the Year" through an online contest and it needs your help to win.

How Water Towers Work

Several years ago, when my son was younger, we drove past a water tower on our way to baseball practice. He asked me what it was and how it worked. Even though kids think their parents have all the answers, I had to admit I had no idea. Fortunately, the internet exists to answer all our questions.

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In a nutshell, according to the How Stuff Works website, they help ensure a certain area of town has the water pressure they need for everyday functions. They are filled by a nearby pump that pushes the water in the pipes underground from the local treatment plant and holds about a day's worth of water for the community they serve in the event of a pump failure.

Tell City Water Tower Competing for Water Tank of the Year

The Tnemec Company is currently hosting a contest to determine the Water Tank of the Year. The Kansas City-based company "specializes in protecting surfaces and structures from corrosion with high-performance coatings and linings," according to its website. Obviously, when you have a large metal structure responsible for providing water to people, making sure a hole doesn't rust through it is pretty important.

The contest features several water towers from every state in the U.S., including the one located in Tell City, Indiana which used to look like this:

And now looks like this thanks to the work of Danny Bolin with Orange Moon Art Studio earlier this year.

In case you're wondering, the apple with the arrow through is in reference to the Marksmen, the Tell City High School mascot.

Voting for Water Tower of the Year is open now through the Tnemec Company website. The leader as of this writing is a tower in Bryan, Ohio painted to look like Dum-Dum suckers followed by this tower in Lebanon, Kentucky just a few miles away from the Maker's Mark distillery painted to look like a bottle of the famous bourbon being poured down the main spout.

Voting closes this Friday, October 13th (2023) with the winner being announced one week later on October 20th.

[Source: The Tnemec Company]