COLUSA, CA (MPG) – Ten years after the Colusa City Council voted against returning the words HOT and COLD to the city’s water towers as a tribute to the past, the conversation has come up again.
No decision has been made on whether to paint the twin towers with the wording, which first appeared in 1950 as a Halloween prank, but the council directed staff to investigate the cost and feasibility before they consider the possibility.
“It’s kind of a unique quality that Colusa had; it brought attention,” said Councilman Greg Ponciano said. “I think bringing it back would be something to play on our past and our history, and that way people will remember us when they are driving through.”
Cities with twin water towers that have hot and cold painted on them include St. Clair, Mo, Canton, Kansas, and Granger, Iowa. Many other towns use their water towers as de facto billboards, advertising business districts or even their local sports teams.
Colusa’s hot/cold wording on the towers appeared on the towers 73 years ago. It was a Halloween prank instigated by then high school seniors Jim Davison (1934-2017) and Harold B. Tennant Jr., 90, of Menlo Park, when both boys were just 16.
Davison’s father, Archibald Davison, was mayor at the time; Tennant’s father, Harold W. Tennant, was on the city council. The wording remained for several years, until painted over, and was a conversation starter over the years among resident when waxing nostalgic.
After Ponciano posted on social media about the possibility of returning the iconic graffiti, most longtime Colusa County residents agreed that the lettering on the towers should return.
“Definitely…those Hot and Cold towers were a historical part of Colusa’s past humor,” wrote Rick Rockwell.
“Yes,” agreed Andi Armstrong, of Williams. “Growing up I thought that was the coolest thing! Nostalgic yes, setting Colusa apart from other small communities, priceless.”
While a past city council, including the late Donna Critchfield, who had suggested the graffiti of yesteryear, discussed the hot/cold route in 2014, the city ultimately decided that one tower should read “Welcome to Colusa” with the city seal, and the other “Historic Riverfront District,” as a more memorable and effective brand for the city.
The authorization for new wording was part of a $330,179 renovation project to bring the towers up to code, re-epoxy the interiors, and repaint the exteriors.
City Manager Jesse Cain, at the Feb. 20, 2024, City Council meeting, said that final step in the 2014 project to add the wording was never followed through because of the difficulty the city experiences keeping the exterior of the towers clean and preventing swallows from nesting, a solution he is still seeking to resolve.
“We have to figure out how to eliminate those birds from being on there,” Cain said.
Cain will work with Sadie Boggs Ash, the city’s consultant, on the feasibility and cost of cleaning the towers and restoring the lettering, before bringing it back to the council for consideration.
“It’s been a conversation we have had the last couple of years,” Ash said.