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Water to wireless, tower gets new life

A landmark water tower in Apollo Beach will be put to use by a telecommunications company, which has also enlisted an artist to give the tower a facelift.

By LETITIA STEIN
Published January 20, 2006

Against shades of aqua paint, the outlines of a manatee and a dolphin have materialized over U.S. 41 in recent weeks.

The aquatic mural is providing a facelift to a water tower that has welcomed people to Apollo Beach since the 1960s. No longer used to store water, it's now getting a second life as a wireless communications tower.

"It's a landmark, and we're very proud to have beautified it," said Ray Weedon, president of the Apollo Beach Chamber of Commerce, the tower's owner. "It can be enhanced and beautified and maintained."

Best of all, he noted, "It didn't cost us anything."

Last summer, the chamber leased the tower to Sago Networks, a Tampa telecommunications company. Sago will install equipment and sell wireless communications to southern Hillsborough County.

For a five-year lease, Sago agreed to repair the steel rusting on top of the tower. It also pledged to repaint the "Apollo Beach" emblazoned on the tower's side and replace the outdated Centurion logo.

Rick Sanders, a local artist, designed a mural that would reflect Apollo Beach's character today. It features images of dolphins, fish and the manatees that visit the Big Bend Power Station each winter.

The deal evolved as the Apollo Beach chamber struggled to find money to maintain the tower, a landmark that it wanted to preserve.

Big Bend Utilities, a water company, built the tower in the early 1960s. Some two decades later, it sold it to Hillsborough County's water department. The county didn't want the aging tower and signed over the tower to the Apollo Beach Chamber of Commerce.

The catch: The chamber lacked a plan to maintain it.

"Landmarks start getting pretty dingy looking," Weedon said. "In the last four to five years, it was starting to show its age."

In brainstorming uses for the water tower, chamber member Lee Kermode realized that his company, Sago, could step in. It happened to need a high spot for antennas to provide network services to local schools, including Apollo Beach Elementary and East Bay High.

Sago agreed to spruce up the tower, from which it also hopes to sell broadband Internet service to businesses in southeast Hillsborough. Late this summer, the company plans to roll out some residential services too.

Sago will donate to the chamber 10 percent of profits on services.

"We win; they win," said Kermode, an Apollo Beach resident and Sago's general manager. "This is our contribution to Apollo Beach."

Letitia Stein can be reached at 661-2443 or lstein@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 08:52:06]