KINGSLAND, Ark. – Each town has that one thing they’re known for, and for Kingsland, that’s Johnny Cash.
The music legend was born in the southern Arkansas town of 500. But recently, Johnny’s been acting up thanks to a perfectly placed bullet hole in the town’s water tower.
A silhouette of Cash was put up on the 50,000-gallon tank to remember the artist, complete with a guitar and signature stance. But Tuesday, city officials arrived to find a creative addition – a bullet hole aimed in such a way so as to make the outline of Cash appear as though he’s relieving himself.
“Somebody shot our water tower, shot the silhouette of Johnny Cash in a very sensitive area,” explained mayor Luke Neal, glancing up at the Man in Black. “It’s been leaking for the last almost week.”
The image of Cash apparently letting loose quickly went viral, with people driving into town just to see the leaking tower.
But although the situation is humorous, the impact of the water tank is not. Close to 30,000 gallons of water are flowing into the dirt every day that Johnny continues to “walk the line”, a lot of water wasted and a negative impact on residents.
“People can look for their water to be discolored,” Neal said, as the town will have to switch to a water line as the tank is repaired. He adds water pressure may also be affected.
According to Neal, the tower is losing somewhere around $200 in water a day, which added with a nearly $5,000 repair job involving draining the tower is putting Kingsland’s budget in “the ring of fire”.
“It might seem small in bigger places,” Neal said of the cost, “but for here it’s a pretty large number.”
The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office does have some leads in this case, with the vandal possibly facing a felony charge for tampering with the vital operations of a city.
A similar incident happened in 1993, but Johnny wasn’t standing up there back then.