By ED PILOLLA

Staff writer

The city of Hillsboro still needs a top to its historic water tower, and Wednesday the Hillsboro city council considered sending out requests for proposals to fix it.

A strong Labor Day storm knocked the top off the water tower that was built in 1927. City officials considered using a replacement top from a water tower being dismantled in Haven. However, while investigating the Haven water tower, “We figured out it was not in as good shape as we wanted to put on ours,” said city administrator Larry Paine said.

A hole in the side of the 75,000-gallon tank also must be repaired and sealed with epoxy, and the city will look to drop a new lid on the water tower with the help of a $103,000 grant from the state historic preservation office. The total cost of the repair work would be about $200,000 and the city will pay for its portion out of the capital improvement fund, Paine said.

The work is expected to be completed sometime this year. The water tower has been out of commission since the lid blew off Sept. 1.

The cost of sandblasting the interior of the tank and repairing the top of the existing tank wall is estimated to cost about $18,000, in addition to other repairs. Repairing holes in the tank wall is estimated to cost $11,000, and installing a new roof $60,000, according to city documents.

Hillsboro is relying exclusively on its larger, 250,000-gallon water tower until repairs are completed to the historic water tower, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Despite freezing temperatures there’s no risk of any further damage occurring to the exposed water tower, Paine said.