EPHRATA – Soon, as people drive into Ephrata, they will be greeted with two 24-foot-tall Ephrata School District “E” logos adorned on the new water tower the city is building. The 16th and final ring of the tower was added Tuesday, with the tower anticipated to be fully functional by mid-fall, according to Ephrata Public Works Director Rob Harris.  

Ephrata City Council decided on the design at the May 22 regular city council meeting after a heated debate.  

The council started with three options: the new city logo, the city seal or the school district “E.” The council was told by staff that they needed to decide at that meeting. Right off the bat, the council decided it was down to the new city logo, which has yet to be revealed to the public, or the “E.”  

Information on the new logo will be published once the city has made it public. 

After a thirty-minute discussion, council member Sarah McDonnell made a motion to paint two school districts' “E” icons on the tower. Then, council members Phil Borck and Matt Moore voted in favor of the “E.” However, council members Kathleen Harris, Mike Warren and Valli Millard voted no on the resolution. Beau Lamens was excused from the meeting, which resulted in a tied vote.  

“I had to make the tie-breaker vote on the thing,” Mayor Bruce Reim said. “It was between the 'E' or the new logo. Looking at the new logo, it was too wide to get a good visual picture of it once you moved from one side to the other. Because the tower is round, the logo would start to lose visual appeal as you moved from one side to the other. So, I thought, ‘Let's just go with the 'E.’ It’s recognizable in an instant, and people will be able to know it’s Ephrata from the road.”   

Reim broke the tie, voting in favor of the “E.”  

“It's been quite an adventure,” Reim said. “It's been really interesting as we continue to get feedback from the community and in and outside the community. It's quite a visual piece. From far, far away, we can see it further and further out of town, so it's going to be quite eye-catching, which is nice.”  

Ephrata School District Superintendent Ken Murray said he was thrilled with the council's decision.  

“We're very excited,” Murray said. “This is another example of the amazing partnership between the City of Ephrata and the Ephrata School District. We genuinely have a belief that the stronger the schools are, the stronger our community is, and vice versa. We work in partnership quite often, and this is just a symbolic opportunity for that partnership to be on full display, but a city facility that's displaying Ephrata “E” is just an amazing thing to just demonstrate how united our community and our school district is.”  

Ephrata Public Relations Director Sarah Morford said the logo was originally designed by Gary Archer in 1980. Archer graduated from the district in 1965 and came back to teach language arts at the middle school. A while back, he designed both the “E” and the Archer Tiger logos the district uses.  

The “E” first appeared on baseball apparel, as Archer was a coach for baseball and basketball. Soon after, the district added it to their branding, and it has stayed since.  

“We're honored,” Morford said. “We have three main logos, the ‘E,' the tiger and the paw, and they're all done by creative graduates. The paw is done by a 2020 high school graduate. So, we're really blessed to have all of that created by people who went to school here.” 

The new design will be painted onto the tower in the upcoming months, but first, there are still things to finalize on the tower itself.  

“The 16th ring was set yesterday, and they're working on welding it up,” Harris said. “Then there's one more, it's not really the ring, it's part of the roof; they call it a knuckle. It still needs to be set, but it's actually part of the roof's curvature. It's like a transition piece between the top ring and the roof, and they will set that around June 9.”  

After the finalization of the roof, Harris said they will still have to sandblast, paint and then disinfect the inside.  

“They are on schedule, if not a little bit ahead of schedule, which is incredible for such a sizable project,” Reim said. “It looks like it's going up slowly, but the construction outfit that's put this thing together is very meticulous about their work and doing a good job, being very diligent to do it right the first time.”  

    During the May 22 regular city council meeting there was a tied vote on what logo should be on the side of the water tower. From left to right are council members Valli Millard, Mike Warren, Matt Moore, Mayor Bruce Reim, council members Kathleen Harris and Sarah McDonnell. Mayor Bruce Reim broke the tie by voting in favor of two Ephrata School District “E’s.”
  

    A mock-up of how the water tower will look with the new logo decision. The Ephrata City Council had a 4-3 vote on whether to put the new city logo, which has not been released to the public or the Ephrata School District E. Mayor Bruce Reim broke the tie by voting in favor of the “E.”