Serving its last drop?

 STANTON — Its image is plastered on city vehicles and sold on postcards at the local gas station. Highway signs beckon visitors to stop in and admire its oddball fame.

However, Stanton’s world’s largest coffeepot may be about to dry up for good. 

Once the city completes its $1.2 million water main replacement project, the coffeepot water tower will no longer be in service, and while there’s no arguing the town values its beloved icon, Mayor Kirk Requist said saving it would require a hefty restoration process. 

“It’s a visual remembrance of our history and heritage,” Requist said. “I can sit on my front porch and look out at it. I’d hate to see it go, but dollars and cents say it may not be worth keeping.”

The original 125-foot tall tower was built in 1942, and when the Stanton Centennial came around in 1970, a spout, handle and Swedish floral design were added to honor the town’s Swedish heritage and Virginia Christine, Stanton’s famous daughter. 

Christine was born in Stanton and went on to star as Mrs. Olsen in numerous Folger’s coffee commercials. She also became a successful television and film actress before her death in 1996.

As the years passed, the coffeepot proved unable to supply the whole town with adequate water pressure. A new, larger tower, fashioned as a cup and saucer, was built in 2000 and painted with the same floral design to match the pot.

City Superintendent Zeb McFarland said the old tower remained in service, supplying only a portion of the town with water because the city’s water main system wasn’t strong enough to handle the increased pressure of the new tower. 

Now, though, plans are finalized for a complete replacement of the city’s water  mains, meaning by early 2015, all of Stanton’s water will come from the cup and saucer and the coffeepot will have served its last drop. 

Restoring the pot so it could remain as an unused monument would cost the city more than $200,000, which Requist said would have to come from the general fund, not the water department budget since it will no longer serve as a water tower. And chances are the Stanton City Council won’t approve such a costly project that is so low on its priority list, according to Requist.  

“It’s more likely it will come down unless we find an outside source,” Requist said. “I’m keeping a positive attitude and hoping something will turn around, but we would need someone with pretty deep pockets.” 

Requist added the city has been successful at raising large quantities of money in the past for community projects; case in point the Viking Center, a more than $3 million community center currently under construction thanks to a profitable fundraising campaign. 

“The Viking Center has been successful,” Requist said. “We may have zapped everyone willing to donate, though, with it.” 

According to McFarland, it will take a lot more than donations to save the coffeepot. 

It requires a new coat of paint, but because there are so many layers of lead-based paint already on it, it would need to be tented and sandblasted to avoid contamination. There is also rust under the spout because it was never capped off, meaning rainwater and debris has gathered in the opening. 

Before any of that can be done, though, the tower’s footings are crumbling and need to be replaced and a new OSHA-approved ladder would have to be installed. 

“We’ve talked about building a replica, something much smaller, though,” McFarland said. “We’re open to ideas at this point.”

To community members like Marlene Kennon, who has lived in Stanton her entire life and now serves on the Historical Society, the coffeepot is more than just a dried up water tower. 

“All small communities who are trying to remain viable need something to rally around and the coffeepot is just that in Stanton. The church and the school and what not maybe are more important but the coffeepot is our trademark,” Kennon said. “Not everyone here is a Swede, but when you come here, you become part of it. You don’t have to be Swedish to enjoy the traditions. The coffeepot is a symbol of that.”

Since the pot will remain in service for at least another year, there is no timeline yet for when the council will make a decision about its future. According to Kennon, the community will take that year to do what it can to save its coffeepot and honor its heritage. 

“We have the Viking Center and lots of other projects in the community and limited resources. We’re hoping maybe the publicity here might help us, though,” Kennon said. “As someone invested and interested in the historical aspect of this town, I just hate to see it come down without trying.”