Somber milestone: Top of old Idaho Falls water tower removed during demolition

IDAHO FALLS — In a somber milestone, the top portion of the old Idaho Falls water tower has been removed as demolition continues Wednesday afternoon.

The demolition of one of Idaho Falls’s iconic landmarks began Jan. 5 after the city of Idaho Falls approved a contract with Ascendent LLC to bring the old tower down.

The contract was for $629,085, with a timeline to fully take down the water tower within 45 days.

A news release issued by the city stated that the tower is expected to be fully torn down by February.

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Throughout the day, numerous community members walked through the area around the water tower, watching as crews made headway on securing the top. Crews have been cutting near the top of the water tower to begin removing it.

At around 2 p.m., crane operators began removing the tower’s top and lowered it to an area near its base.

EastIdahoNews.com spoke with two resident who shared their thoughts on this new milestone in the tower’s demolition.

Resident Trisha Lindsey, along with her daughter, Reve Lindsey, were in attendance to watch as the top of the tower was lowered.

Trisha said she grew up in the Idaho Falls area but now lives in Rigby and made the trip to see the progress of the demolition.

“We had to come down and try to see if we could see it before it was gone. It will be missed from our Idaho Falls skyline,” Trisha said.

Having two older sons, a 20-year-old and a 17-year-old, she’s been sending them photos of the progress crews have made and knows they’re sad to see the tower being taken down.

Trisha said she has gotten photos of Reve with the tower as she won’t grow up seeing it.

“It seems insignificant because it’s just a water tower, but it’s part of so many memories,” Trisha said. “It’ll be something we just tell her about in the future.”

Another resident, Edward Zaladonis, who helped to design and build the Japanese Pavilion at the Japanese Friendship Garden, told EastIdahoNews.com he remembered when the tower was painted its iconic red and blue colors during the Bicentennial.

“It’s been a landmark, patriotic landmark, artistic landmark. When I started spending all of my free time on the island, it’s like my next-door neighbor,” Zaladonis said.

As an engineer, Zaladonis understood that efforts to maintain the tower were futile, but did campaign the city to paint the new tower like the old one.

However, he said this might’ve been an issue too, as he recalls that in 1976, when the old tower was painted, the wind carried the paint, which fell onto parked cars nearby.

“They oversprayed like 60 cars that the city had to pay to be repainted,” Zaladonis said, laughing.

Regarding the old tower’s demolition, Zaladonis said he was hesitant about coming down as he believed it might be a bit emotional, but he said life moves on, and the tower had served its purpose.

He said people shouldn’t harbor hard feelings about the tower being demolished.

“(They should) have good memories of the water tower,” Zaladonis said. “And I do.”

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