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What to Do with the Sperry Water Tower? <br /> The 146-foot-tall water tower in Eagan is. a money-maker for the city, but the aging building <br /> needs at least $510,000 in maintenance. <br /> Posted by David Henke (Editor), May 22, 2013 at 10:08 AM <br /> Demolish the Sperry Water Tower? Convert it into a giant hydro-battery? Make it a public <br /> art installation? Allow someone to take up private residence in it <br /> The ideas ranged far and wide at anEagan City Council meeting on Tuesday night, as the <br /> council considered the fate of the 146-foot structure just north of Central Park in Eagan. <br /> Built in 1967, the 500,000-gallon reservoir was the city's first water tower, and for decades <br /> it served as an integral part of the city's water system. But in recent years, the Sperry <br /> tower has been supplanted by newer infrastructure. No longer needed for its original <br /> purpose, the tower was disconnected from the water system in 2009. <br /> The aging tower needs at least $510,000 in maintenance over the next 3-5 years to protect <br /> its structural integrity, according to Eagan Public Works Director Russ Matthys. City officials <br /> are loathe to pay for those maintenance costs, but don't want to lose a potential landmark— <br /> and a proven money-maker. <br /> Although it no longer holds water, the tower hosts a handful of cell phone antennae for <br /> companies like Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. In exchange for the use of the tower, those <br /> companies pay Eagan; in 2013 alone, the city made $146,805 from the companies. <br /> "Right now, it's in essence functioning as a cell phone tower," Matthys told the council on <br /> Tuesday. <br /> At the meeting, Matthys presented three options to the council: Pay the maintenance costs <br /> and keep the tower, demolish the water tower and build a city-owned cell phone tower to <br /> continue to generate revenue or demolish the tower to develop or sell the land. <br /> • <br />