Blackfoot water towers to receive face lift

UPDATE: Bingham Memorial announced their plans for the Blackfoot water towers.

The north tower, which is closest to the hospital, will be painted green and say “Welcome to the City of Blackfoot” on one said and have “Welcome to Bingham Memorial Hospital” on the other.

For the south tower, the hospital asks for the community’s input. Next year, the hospital will launch a website where the public can submit ideas. A panel will then narrow the ideas down to two or three. They will ask for public input for the final decision.

No changes will be made to the water towers until after winter.

ORIGINAL STORY

The city of Blackfoot has officially sold its water towers to Bingham Memorial Hospital.

The city sold the towers for a total of $1. While the city deemed the towers to have no value, they had to have a monetary transaction to make it legal. The city tried to take down the towers a few months ago, but many people signed a petition to keep them up.

The towers have been out of use since the ’90s. The city says they are a liability and it would cost a lot of money to maintain them.

“They become a situation where they obviously need to be painted, they need to be inspected,” Richard Mangum, Public Works Director for the City of Blackfoot, said. “They need to be, before they fall down or somebody seriously gets hurt.”

The hospital stepped in to buy the towers, saying it is happy to preserve the landmarks.

“The water towers are a historical landmark,” Matt Look, Director of Marketing and PR for Bingham Memorial Hospital, said. “And to Blackfoot, it’s a big part of Blackfoot and the public has shown that it’s a big part of Blackfoot. So, Bingham Memorial, being a big part of Blackfoot, decided to purchase the water towers so we could keep that heritage and those landmarks intact.”

The hospital has not announced their plans for the water towers yet, but will do so in the next few days.