The future of the Maidstone water tower in Lakeshore is up in the air.
The tower on County Rd. 22 at Wallace Ln. has been disconnected for more than a year and in need of $1.2-million in repairs.
On Tuesday night, council was asked to approve a $600,000 demolition plan, but opted for a motion put forward by councillor Steven Wilder.
Wilder has asked for a report detailing the pros and cons of bringing the tower back online.
He says fixing the tower would be far cheaper than building a new one.
"The estimate we heard is that it might be $6-million in today's dollars to go ahead and rebuild that tower. We could refurbish and rehabilitate the existing structure at a quarter of the cost. It is not a safety risk, does not need to be taken down. So I'm saying if we've got an existing asset, let's look at re-purposing it and reusing it."
Wilder says leaving the tower as is is an option as well.
"We could essentially do nothing at this point in time and it wouldn't change anything. It's not at risk of falling down or anything like that. So my question was, why do anything? Before we go ahead and take a step to permanently remove it, let's take a look at other options and see if we can reuse it, re-purpose it."
Lakeshore councillor Steven Wilder seen on November 5, 2019 (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
He says the tower has become somewhat of a landmark for Lakeshore and it would be a shame to see it go.
"I think there was an opportunity, I raised it a number of years ago, to go ahead and repaint it and use it as a billboard. It would be a great way to promote the community identity, to help really firm up the fact that that is part of Lakeshore. It's great advertising, a great community feature."
A new water tower was built in Belle River in 2015 and an administrative report shows the 35-year-old Maidstone tower is no longer needed.
The same report states a new water tower will likely be needed within the next 10 to 15 years to handle future growth.
Wilder adds that's why he's asking more options be put on the table before the Maidstone tower is torn down.