It's a landmark synonymous with Estevan that's recognizable to anyone who has spent time here, and it has been in the city since 1956. Beginning as soon as possible in 2021, Estevan's water tower will be getting a facelift from the city. 

At City Council's meeting last night, their final meeting of 2020, they heard a report on the state of the rehabilitation of the water tower including what work needed to be done and how much it would cost. At this point, the city is already reaching out to contractors and seemed to have a clear leading candidate. 

"We've been working on the rehabilitation of the water tower for a few years now," said Mayor Roy Ludwig. "Shane (Bucsis, manager of the Wastewater Treatment Plant) has been very involved and now we're at the point of getting consultants. This will come out of the federal gas tax money, so the money, for the most part, has already been set aside for this project."

In a presentation to council on Monday night, Bucsis presented some of the issues facing the water tower. The tower was in good shape overall, in his estimation, but needed replacement pipes in some places, and the access hatches also needed to be replaced. Some walkways would also need replacing, meaning this would be a potentially expensive facelift.

"The really big project in the last few years was the Rafferty line," Ludwig said. "That was a really large project. Now, moving forward, we see smaller but important projects such as the water tower rehabilitation."

Ludwig said he hoped the work would begin in 2021, though COVID-19 made it hard to predict. When the project does get underway, one distinguishing mark of the water tower will remain according to the Mayor. The quotation marks around Estevan on the water tower are apparently there to stay. 

"We have had so much feedback on that," he said. "I think it would be a mistake to take the quotations off, I really do. We've even got them on the water park down below. I don't know if you noticed, but on the water tower in Dennis Moore Centennial Park, we made sure quotation marks got put around Estevan."

Ludwig added he expects the refurbishments on the water tower to cost about $1 million, most of which will be covered by the federal gas tax money. According to the report filed by Bucsis, KGS Group is the most likely group to get the job thanks to impressive references and work examples including similar work on a water tower in North Battleford.