Lakemoor to drain, repaint inside and outside of village water tower in late April

Lakemoor residents will be asked to use less water for about three weeks in late April after officials agreed to repaint the village’s only water tower.

Mayor Todd Weihofen said the water tower on Darrell Road near Route 120 has been rusting lately, and is in need of repainting and restoration on the inside and outside of the tank.

Water towers are routinely painted every 15 years, Weihofen said, and the last time Lakemoor’s water tower was painted was about 13 years ago.

The village board decided to paint the inside and outside of the water tower in the same project, rather than paint the outside now and the inside at a later date, he said.

The work will cost $165,000, and will require the storage tank to be shut down for about three weeks.

“Residents will not see any disruptions in water service while this is taking place, but they’ll be asked to reduce the amount of water they use because we won’t have any water storage available,” Weihofen said. “The water will still be treated, cleaned and chlorinated after it’s pulled out of the well, we just won’t have any place to store it.”

Weihofen did not explain what water reductions would be in place while the water tower is not being used.

According to 2010 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the water tower serves more than 6,000 people and just over 2,100 households.

Weihofen said the goal is to have the water tower back on line by the first week of May.

“If everything goes according to plan, people won’t even realize that it happened,” he said. “But, it’s one of those things that need to be done, and it’s better to do it all at once than to stretch it out over time.”