Water Tower

Introduction
The City received a proposal regarding the purchase on a portion of a lot located on Tower Street. The parcel is located on south side of Tower Street east of Ferry Drive adjacent to the lot owned by the Light and Water Utility. The Public Works Board is being asked to make a recommendation on the purchase of the property.
Context
The City Light and Water Utility owned a multi-column water tower on the south side of Tower Street east of Ferry Drive at the dead end above Campus Field. The tower was constructed in 1957 by Pittsburgh-Des Moines Corporation. The tower had a capacity of 250,000 gallons of approximately 130 feet.

In 1995, the City took bids to remove the existing paint and repaint the tower. The low bid was $197,000. The paint on the tower contained lead and conditions with regard to space to remove the lead paint from the tower made the cost of repainting the tower 50% of the cost to constructing a new tower.

After an in depth analysis of the tower’s condition, it was determined that the remaining life of the tank, cost of repainting, need for additional storage and the need for a larger site were listed as reasons for constructing and new tower and removing the old one.

The old site had several advantages and was considered a valuable site for a water tower if more space could be acquired.
Issue
The Homann’s are offering a portion of parcel 246-0713-1144-064 to the City Light and Water Utility for $38,181.92. The parcel is 129.08’ x 66.01’ or total square feet of 8,520.57. The portion being offered is 129.08’ x 56’ or 7,228.48 square feet.

The Light and Water Utility owns the lot immediately to the east. The lot is 10,367.28 square feet. The Utility owned lot has unusual dimensions (127.66’ deep and 64.37’ wide on the south end and 132.84’ wide on the north end. The additional 7,228.48 square feet would make the lot a better option for future use as a water tower site.

The Water Utility has the poorest financial position of the three utilities. The additional cost of the lot combine with future expensed on major project will significantly increase the debt burden of the Water Utility.

The Utility may never have another opportunity to acquire space for future use of the site as water tower. The risk is that if the site is purchased and at some point it’s determined that the site still isn’t viable for the type of structure to be built. In the long run, real estate is still a pretty safe investment.

It would be advised to have the engineer’s do some level of assessment to determine if this proposal has any value to the utility at this time.