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Moorhead water tower named 'Tank of the Year'

Southside tower painting beats out 300 entries

Moorhead southside water tower.jpg
This water tower on the far southeast side of the city has been named "Tank of the Year" by a manufacturing company that produces finishes for water towers based in Kansas City, Mo. There were 300 entries in this year's contest from around the nation and Canada. Submitted photo / Tnemac Co.

MOORHEAD — Moorhead's newly painted southside water tower has bested 300 others from across the country and won recognition as "Tank of the Year."

The tower's wrap-around mural was designed by Moorhead artists and graphic designers Stephen Dorsey and Jack Lunde, who also created the artwork for two other towers in the city.

"I'm very, very excited and proud," said Dorsey, who is a freelance artist and graphic designer. "Jack and I thought the design really encapsulated Moorhead."

Dorsey said he and Lunde took input from neighbors for each of their three designs. Their winning design for the south Moorhead tower features a wheatfield as the base and two local landmarks: The Bluestem Amphitheater and Concordia College's "Crazy Tree." It also aims to highlight the active side of Moorhead by incorporating a jogger, golfer, dog walker and children playing.

Moorhead's tower was selected from 300 entries across the United States and Canada in a contest held by Kansas City, Missouri-based Tnemec Company, which sells protective water tower coatings.

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The company, which has been giving out the annual award since 2006, called the mural "energetic and colorful" and noted that it can serve as a "community billboard to visitors near and far."

Tnemec Company's protective finish was used on the tower.

The runner-up, called the "People's Choice" award, went to a Rochester, Minnesota-area water tower shaped and painted to look like an ear of corn.

Photos of the top 12 designs will go on a calendar distributed by Tnemec Company.

Rochester water tower.jpg
This water tower from Rochester, Minn., was the runnerup or the "people's choice" winner in the competitiion. The corn cob tower was designed to fit the mural. Submitted photo / Tnemac Co.

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