June 20, 2017
Letters, North Dakota

Oakport water tower painting cliffhanger

Letter: Oakport water tower painting cliffhanger | By Robert L. Seigel | INFORUM | Jun 19, 2017 | www.inforum.com

As an “edge of the seat” observer to the continuing narrative unfolding about the painting of the water tower in the province formerly known as Oakport, is it too late to ask “Why, pray tell, would anyone include the wind turbine silhouette from the ‘Inherit the Wind’ program … a program that has done little else than lose money for the city … on the water tower logo?”

Moorhead Public Service has never released a balance sheet or the operating cash flow figures for the two wind generators. Further, there are no plans to add any additional turbines; had they been a success, MPS would all over installing more. They are not.

Aside from being a rather silly design concept (an egret standing amongst cattails…perhaps promoting the floodplain?) the cost of the additional painting will, undoubtedly, be subsidized by the ratepayers of the community thanks to the efforts of those who think molding poetry into sidewalks and cleverly painting utility enclosures will energize and uplift the societal norms of the city.

This does not quite rise, however, to the level of the ersatz irrational design concept involved in Moorhead’s Heritage Garden and Amphitheater (have you seen this pathetic attempt at “artistic expression?) which, realistically resembles an abandoned scrap metal collection site without mandatory OSHA orange cones and warning notices; but it does its best, through the coordination of no fewer than 13 groups, agencies, consultants, artists and endowment programs, to redefine the concept of concise, communicative, visual arts. Please, let us save ourselves from those who, apparently, have nothing better to do than splash paint on inanimate structures in order to create objet d’art.

Seigel lives in Moorhead.