March 28, 2024

Colfax competing for water tower painting

The City of Colfax has entered into a contest hosted by the Iowa Finance Authority to win a custom water tower painting if they secure the most votes against 22 other entries.

To enter the contest, the city was required to make a brief video outlining why Colfax would be the best community to receive the custom water tower painting by artist Laura Palmer.

“I heard about it at the state fair and I thought there is really nobody that has got a better water story than Colfax,” city administrator Wade Wagoner said.

There are many benefits that could arise if Colfax won the competition. Wagoner said it would help on cost of maintenance with the water tower among other things like bringing more attention to Colfax.

“It would just be notoriety for the community,” Wagoner said.

One thing Wagoner mentioned was the city looking for ways to increase their visibility so that possible developers and residents could more readily see Colfax on the map no matter where they are in Iowa.

“Our motivation for applying was we wanted to just be more visible throughout the state,” Wagoner said.

As many in Jasper County know Colfax has a history steeped with water whether it be the history of mineral springs water that brought people from far and wide to drink it or Quarry Springs park sitting right on the edge of town enticing people to come visit.

“I think we have got the best water story to tell of anybody,” Wagoner said.

The rules for the contest were simple. Create a short video showcasing the water in the community and it had to be submitted by the city. The winner is selected by popular vote with Facebook users being able to vote once every 24 hours per video.

“Voting opened October 1, it goes through October 11,” Wagoner said.

It can’t go without saying that a lot of work went into producing this short video to put online from pictures from Quarry Springs Park and the Historical Society and having a videographer come and put the whole package together for Colfax.

“A big thank you to everybody that gave me photos to put together in the production of the video,” Wagoner said.

The video itself was put together by Doug Zimmerman who is a videographer with Rock Glen Design. Zimmerman put in five total design hours in making the Colfax video for the water tower contest.

“On behalf of everyone in the city of Colfax I wanted to say thank you to Doug,” Wagoner said.

Voting for the contest officially closes at 5 p.m. Oct. 11 and Colfax, at the time of writing this, is currently in third place with 2,900 votes. If you would like to vote you can click here.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com