Fairbury Water Tower in middle of big makeover

FAIRBURY, NE — The Fairbury water tower has been through a lot in the last five weeks.  It’s had workers navigate it by ladder, it’s had posts jammed in it’s top and curtains draped down the sides. Now, the tower is missing paint and looks like it’s wearing a nice summer hat.

The town landmark is undergoing maintenance scheduled for every 15 or 20 years. The city also did paint sampling and discovered the previous coat contained lead. City Administrator Mary Renn says the maintenance is a thorough process.

“They had to go on the inside and blast it and re-coat it and that has been completed. Then they sandblasted the outside and they’ll be painting that as well.”

Weather pending, it’s supposed to return to its typical look by November 15th and resume it’s place as a city icon.

“It is something to show off, it’s a signature of what Fairbury is about, it can be seen from a distance. I think the public takes a lot of pride in being a Jeff.”

The tower will remain white and the Fairbury lettering will be the same style, just bigger. ‘Jeff Man’ will be painted on both sides after a third-party fundraising effort to keep the high school mascot on the tower.

“Not surprisingly enough, I think most of the money was raised within that first week. Because the money did keep coming in, the decision was made to go ahead and see if we couldn’t do that for two Jeff men and we did succeed.”

The tower holds 1 million gallons of water and feeds the water main distribution line for Fairbury and the outlying areas.

The fundraising effort to paint 'Jeff Man' on both sides of the tower raised about $7,250.