Gainesville gets a taller water tower as part of multi-million dollar grant
photos courtesy of Ed Doiron Derric Byington, an employee with Kansas-based Gerard Tank company, is shown here last Saturday, Oct. 25, working to align the top of Gainesville’s new center water tower as his co-worker Kile Kennedy waits patiently on the ladder below him. After it was aligned, two men climbed on top and welded the cap in place. The new tower is funded through a mutli-million dollar grant the city received to improve its water system.
Workers are shown here welding the inside panels of the new Gainesville city water central water tower.
photos courtesy of Ed Doiron The new central water tower holds double the capacity as the old tower, which will provide better water pressure for homeowners and for emergency personnel using fire hydrants in the center district. The platform for the old water tower can be seen on the ground just to the lower left of the new tower.
If you’ve driven down Highway 160 toward Gainesville lately, you may have noticed a change to the town’s skyline - the city’s central water tower is standing a lot taller these days. That’s because a brand-new tower, which holds double the capacity of water, has been installed to replace the city’s aging tank that sat in that location.
The new structure is part of a series of major infrastructure upgrades funded through a multi-million-dollar ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) grant, which was awarded to the city of Gainesville. Kansas-based company Gerard Tank is completing the tower installation.
“The old central tower was small in size, 50,000 gallons, and therefore unable to provide the central area with adequate pressures and fire protection,” City Water Specialist Jessi Price told the Times. “The DNR [Department of Natural Resources] has suggested we replace it for many years.”
Due to the smaller size and lower pressure of the old tank, the city had to utilize a booster pump beside the tower in order to get water up the hill to homes in the center district. With the new tower, the booster pump won’t be needed, leaving the city will less equipment to maintain.
“In replacing the smaller tower with a new 100,000 gallon one like the east and west sides have, we are able to store more water, increase pressures in homes as well as fire hydrants for emergencies and be able to feed either side of town in an outage,” Price said.
The $4,252,500 project is being funded through a Department of Natural Resources ARPA grant, which aims to help improve the aging city’s water system.
“Our water system is like most around the country. It is starting to fail and require replacements,” Price told the Times earlier this year as work began on water improvements. The project mainly focuses on the center area of town, which is the oldest and most in need of improvements, she said. “We will be replacing water lines and installing a new water tower that will allow the town to have better pressure, fewer leaks and less water loss as well as supporting a connection to the west side.
“The west side of town will be getting new lines as well as a connection to the center district that can be used in emergencies. This new connection will allow the center area to pump water to the west side if an issue with the west side pump or tower arrises. It should keep us from being without water.
“The east side will also be receiving line replacements as well. There will be boil advisories issued when these lines are replaced. Just a reminder that a boil advisory is only a precaution that DNR provides us with to let the community know there has been a disruption (line replacement, low pressures) and to take caution to boil water before ingestion. These are not boil orders.”
To find out more, call Gainesville City Hall at 417-679-4858 or stop in the office on the northwest corner of the square.