Lake Worth Beach water tower's new 'beach ball' look: The artist, the cost and the details

LAKE WORTH BEACH — On the edge of Lake Worth Beach, nearly 145 feet in the air, a monumental reminder of the city's past and present is catching the attention of interstate drivers.

After a handful of failed attempts to change the city’s name, residents narrowly voted to add “Beach” to the end of Lake Worth’s name in 2019. But it wasn’t until this year that Lake Worth Beach finally repainted the water tower that sits alongside Interstate 95.

And that was always the plan.

After voters chose to expand on the city’s name, giving a nod to its public beach and pier, the city decided to update assets — signs on city buildings, letterheads of city documents and the seal on the floor of City Hall — only when they needed replacing.

By waiting for scheduled maintenance or routine purchases, the city hoped to avoid spending unnecessary money based on the name change alone, city spokesman Ben Kerr said.

The tower was last painted in 2012, using a design that honored the city’s upcoming 100-year anniversary, and the tower needs repainting about once a decade to protect it from the blistering sun and torrential rain in Florida.

The new paint job, which started in early July and wrapped up Aug. 6, resembles a beach ball with red, yellow, white and blue stripes. The city’s name and logo are displayed on both the north and south side of the tower.

Lake Worth Beach's new-look water tower: Who are the artists of the city's beach ball in the sky?

A man from Mississippi who painted the tower during its last update a decade ago, along with other water towers throughout Florida and the United States, returned for this year’s job.

The refresh, Kerr said, cost about $90,000 between the labor, materials and equipment.

“The paint basically stops corrosion and rust,” Kerr said. “It’s a lot cheaper to send someone up to paint it than to send them up for a repair job at that height.”

Jimmy Kelly is the person behind the city’s new beach ball in the sky, along with designs found on water towers in more than three dozen states. His work in Florida includes the towers in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale.

And though Kelly’s interest in art started at a young age, his career took several turns before landing at his current job. He joined the U.S. Army after high school and worked as a diesel mechanic for more than a decade before going on to work at a shirt factory and then doing upholstery on La-Z-Boy recliners.

ALSO IN LAKE WORTH BEACH: Why pesky critters are causing so many power outages in the city

That all changed in 1992, when he heard about a job working on water towers in Jackson, Miss., a daunting proposition at that time. He had never set foot on a tower or worked that high off the ground.

“I went ahead and went out there, tried it, and three weeks later I was up in the air painting with them,” he said.

ALSO IN LAKE WORTH BEACH: Goodbye, Mango Hill: Hatcher farm, home of special mangoes, soon to be sold

Kelly went solo and started his own painting company about 20 years ago. His wife, Cathy, handles the books for their business, Industrial and Commercial Signs, and they can even be seen working atop the occasional water tower together.

In Lake Worth Beach, the water tower's new design has 10 stripes and every stripe took several hours, Kelly said. That’s because all of his jobs require meticulous planning and execution, regardless of the size or the city.

“It takes a lot of measuring and calculating,” he said, “You don’t want to start painting and go, ‘Oh crap, that ain’t where that goes,' because then you’ll be painting over it.”

Why did Lake Worth want to change the name to Lake Worth Beach?

ALSO IN LAKE WORTH BEACH: Three things to know about Trashe´ Vintage, the funky punk-rock store

The proposed name change arose in 1990 but residents quickly pushed back on the idea. More than a decade later, in 2012, Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell again floated the idea in hopes of addressing two concerns.

He wanted to distinguish the city from parts of unincorporated Palm Beach County that have "Lake Worth" in their mailing addresses.

People as far west as Wellington have the Lake Worth address, and crimes taking place in unincorporated areas would sometimes be attributed to the city, a major thorn in the side of city officials. People with a Lake Worth address would also visit the city for help by mistake, not realizing their issues fell under a different jurisdiction.

The other goal was to capitalize on the city's public beach, along with its waterfront fishing and dining, ensuring that visitors and residents knew Lake Worth as the funky seaside city that it was.

But the idea again divided residents who felt that changing the name was a distracting waste of time or an insult to the city's founders, so the vice mayor and his fellow commissioners withdrew a previous decision to put the change on a ballot.

“There are a lot of reasons a name change would be helpful, but it was never intended to be divisive,” Maxwell said at the time.

History seemed likely to repeat itself once more in 2019, after then-Mayor Pam Triolo repeated concerns about crime in unincorporated areas being linked to the city. The long-standing idea, however, made its way onto a ballot for the first time.

Residents decided by razor-thin margins to finally rename the city Lake Worth Beach, with 1,402 voting for the change and 1,342 voting against it.

How does a water tower work and why is it so important to Lake Worth Beach?

The water tower in Lake Worth Beach — one of the last parts of city property that needed updating after the name change — provides not only a convenient space for branding, but also an essential tool to provide water throughout the city.

It allows the city to store about 300,000 gallons of water when at full capacity. If the city's primary water source or pumping system were to fail, the stored water would serve as a backup until repairs are made, according to the city's water utility team, which explained the tower's function in an email provided by Kerr.

Want more Lake Worth Beach news?

Sign up for our Post on Lake Worth Beach weekly newsletter, delivered every Thursday!

The tower is also used on a regular basis to provide homes and businesses with water.

"During periods of low demand, such as late at night, water is pumped into the tower, filling it to capacity," the team wrote in the email. "Then, during periods of high demand, water is released from the tower, ensuring a continuous supply."

The structure's height, they said, is also important. The tall tower creates gravitational pressure that helps to maintain a steady flow of water throughout the city.

"By maintaining an adequate water pressure, the tower ensures that water can reach the upper floors of tall buildings and that firefighting systems have sufficient pressure for emergencies," the team wrote.

Giuseppe Sabella is a reporter covering Boynton Beach and Lake Worth Beach at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at gsabella@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lake Worth Beach water tower gets a new 'beach ball' look