 A citizens committee has now been formed in Brainerd to work towards a common goal, the save the historic water tower. The water tower citizens committee was created with the goal of raising enough money in the public sector to save the historic water tower. The committee is currently focusing on marketing and how to get the word out to the community and area businesses about their need for funds. The Brainerd City Council gave the committee two years to raise the money needed to save the tower. We caught up with one of the committee chair, the committee chair in fact, about this project. Right now there are various efforts going forward to raise money and that's wonderful. The enthusiasm has been just so encouraging. The dilemma is that right now there isn't a coordinated effort and so one of the things I believe the committee will be looking at will be more of a coordinated effort. The water tower's future came into question when Stucco began falling from the tower last summer. The city estimated that it would cost around three million dollars to save and preserve the water tower that was built between 1919 and 1922. It is one of two towers by the architect still standing and is on the national registry of historic places. The water tower has been called Paul Bunyan's flashlight and Paul Bunyan's steak knife and all sorts of things kind of segued in with the Paul Bunyan legend in the area but whatever whatever they call it we need to we need to save it and we will. The water tower citizens committee will hold its next meeting on Wednesday December 19th at 6 p.m. in the conference room at Brainerd City Hall. The meeting is open to the public. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.