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Maybe you've noticed a lot of communities around Rochester have their name on their water towers. Or a team logo, or something. Mostly just city/town names, though. I found out why they have them and Rochester doesn't, and you can thank Doug for this.

Received this email the other day...

Need your help, James?

Can you help us determine why the city of Rochester doesn’t brand our water towers? There’s so much opportunity up there!

Thanks — in advance — if you’re able to get any feedback.

Doug

So I set off to find out. A note to the City of Rochester connected me with Tony Benson, RPU's Communications Coordinator, and the answer. From Tony,

JAMES!

...The simple answer to why we don’t paint logos, city or others, on the water towers is cost. It would cost RPU customers roughly $10,000 or more to do each. There would also be ongoing upkeep and touch up costs too. Thanks!

There you go, Doug. They're not "Rochester" water towers because it'd cost too much, what with all our water towers.

But what about NON city branding...what about selling that space to a business? I couldn't find much information on the topic, but I did find this 2019 water tower ad revenue report from Burnsville, MN.

Revenue collection for private advertising on City owned water towers appears to be very rare according to our research, but it is possible there are more arrangements that we weren't able to find.

Staff recommends that the City Council consider the early statement in the attached Policy 1.327 where it states "All...advertising shall...not...reflect negatively on the City’s public image."

It does happen, a Google Image Search proves this, but seems there's few examples that look like they're really bringing in the cash.

Do you have a question about stuff in Rochester? I'll do my best to get the answer if you use the email address here (or scroll down).

How do they clean the water towers? Here's how they cleaned up the Apache Mall tower...

And holy moly...this time lapse of taking down a Rochester water tower is wild. Took just one day, apparently.

As always, if you have a comment, complaint, or concern about something I wrote here, please let me know: james.rabe@townsquaremedia.com

Listen to James Rabe and Jessica Williams Weekday from 6 - 10 AM on Y-105 FM

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