The mural on Fort Saskatchewan’s water tower will stay, at least for a little while. City Council agreed last week to put any work on the water tower on hold until it can discuss the matter at its April 18 meeting.

Councillor Patrick Noyen will present a motion at that time to rescind the decision to replace the existing mural with a version of the City of Fort Saskatchewan logo.

The water tower is to be refurbished this summer, which will include fresh paint. But that $1.3 million project cannot proceed until City Council agrees how the tower on what the new paint job will look like.

The existing mural, placed there in 1995, will be destroyed when the tower is repainted, but could be replicated, with an exact copy freshly applied to the tower. The mural could also be modified, or replaced with something entirely new.

City Council was asked earlier this spring to delay the project so that the public could be consulted as to what to paint on the water tower. Such a consultation would take several months and would mean the tower cannot be refurbished until next summer.

Council decided, instead, to direct staff to produce a simple treatment for the water tower based on Fort Saskatchewan’s official logo.

Local social media sites have seen hundreds of complaints about this decision, including an online petition demanding that the current mural be kept.

The water tower is currently used to maintain a constant water pressure to homes during changing water demand, rather than relying on variable rate pumps at the water reservoirs. The tower will be taken out of service when the Westpark reservoir is upgraded in about 10 years time.

The water tower is now planned to remain in place even after it is taken out of service. Officials feel it is a valuable community landmark, and in any case is needed for local cell phone and emergency radio communications.