'Hamburger' mural on Town of Hamburg water tower off the table

Hamburg, N.Y. (WBEN) - The bid to have a hamburger painted on the Town of Hamburg's water tower will be nothing more than a pie in the sky idea. The town says cost and safety will prevent that tower project from happening.

Hamburg Town Supervisor Randy Hoak says a lot of people were surprised to learn that this is a water tower that's empty and is no longer functioning. While the tower is in no danger of falling or collapsing, there were concerns on the part of the inspector to add a scaffold to perform work on the water tower.

"We also did some rough estimates and talk to some folks that are able to paint structures of this size, and the costs were extremely high. The cost of removing the water tower would also be extremely high," said Hoak in an interview with WBEN.

For the time being, the Hamburg Town Board has focused on other priorities that have been determined to be more important to the residents.

Hoak says the group that was lobbying to have the water tower painted has been talking to other folks in the community about using some of the private funds that were raised for that to paint a mural somewhere else in the town. Hoak did believe the hamburger would have brought some attention, and perhaps some tourists to the community.

"The problem in evaluating the decision is to really quantify that impact. So it was tough to bring a true cost benefit analysis to that issue," Hoak admitted.

Had there been more information made available sooner, the Town Board could have made a better informed decision.

Hoak says there are a lot of needs for infrastructure improvements throughout the town, including repairing sewer lines, improving water lines and sidewalks. Those are the items that are higher in priority at this time.