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Thursday, February 16, 2006

Moriarty Wants 'Pintos' on Tank

By Beth Hahn
Mountain View Telegraph
    Moriarty's new water tower will not be blank for long.
    The plain white water tank will be emblazoned with the name of the city— and the local high school's mascot.
    Mayor Adan Encinias said Monday that city officials are discussing ways to add "Pintos" to the water tower.
    "(The painters) are telling us that the only way they can incorporate 'Pintos' is by painting it on the stem," he said. "We're still in conversations with them on how to incorporate it.
    "We haven't forgotten about the Pintos," he said.
    The old water tower has Moriarty High School's mascot, a kelly green pinto horse, and the words "Moriarty Pintos" painted on it.
    Construction company officials told Encinias that decorative painting will begin soon, but they did not give a specific date, he said.
    Meanwhile, City Park has reopened and will remain open until painting resumes or construction crews come to take the old water tower down, said city public works director Mike Tapia.
    "We'll close the park again when they come to take the old tank down, but they haven't given us a date yet," he said Tuesday.
    The old water tower, which was deemed unsafe during a routine inspection in late 2004, may not be scrap metal— if Encinias and Tapia have anything to say about it.
    Encinias said he wants to use the old water tower, which has a capacity of about 50,000 gallons, to store treated effluent at the city's waste-water treatment plant.
    The water, which is not suitable for drinking, is currently used to water the city's baseball fields.
    Tapia said the waste-water facility could benefit from having the extra storage capacity for treated effluent and the baseball field sprinkler system could use more pressure, which the tank would provide.
    "Man, that would help us out a lot," he said.
    Encinias said he is negotiating with construction company officials on dismantling the old tower and possibly moving it to the waste-water treatment plant.
    Any demolition is at least six weeks away, he estimated.