By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
CRANBURY — A fixture of the community’s skyline for more than a century could soon be just a distant memory as the owner of the “Historic Cranbury” water tower plans to dismantle the structure, deciding it has outlived its usefulness.
Representatives from the New Jersey American Water Company, which owns both the structure and the parcel of land on Maplewood Drive it stands on, said no timeline has been set for the removal.
”The water tower has been out of service for the better part of 10 years now,” said Richard Barnes, spokesman for the company. “We don’t want to invest in a structure that adds no value to our customers.”
Aside from its antiquated state, the tower also has begun leaking, prompting the company to insist on its removal, he said.
”We’ve presented a number of proposals to help (the Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society) retain the historic memory of the tower but for right now, we have plans to take it down,” Mr. Barnes said.
Township historian and society member Betty Wagner said she’s been trying to negotiate with New Jersey American Water to restore this piece of the township’s “historical fabric” for more than a decade.
Reading from a letter she had prepared for the company, Ms. Wagner said she only hopes the community will find a way to salvage the tower.
”It has been a symbol of permanence in a century of change from the horse-drawn carriage era to the automobile,” she said. “It’s been indignant to the passage of time.”
The tower, which was constructed in 1906 by the Cranbury Water Company, was converted from a wooden to a steel structure in the early 1940s, she said. Eventually Elizabethtown Water Company, which later became New Jersey American, purchased it.
In modern times, the tower is realistically too small to be used as a backup water system and even has levels of radon that would make it unusable in its current state, said society member Mark Berkowsky.
However, like Ms. Wagner, Mr. Berkowsky said those factors do not change the historical significance it holds for the community.
”It draws from a time when we were much more self-reliant,” Ms. Wagner said, recalling a time in the township’s past when the tower’s water supply was drawn from the local wells.
New Jersey American Water Company is in the process of retaining the proper permits and procuring a company that would be able to take the structure down, Mr. Barnes said.
For the time being, the company has offered Ms. Wagner a few options, including using signage at the site, providing members with the dismantled tower pieces or even selling the structure, along with the land, to the society.
Each option poses its own pitfalls, Ms. Wagner said, as the society has neither the equipment nor the land to supplant the tower and certainly does not have the approximately $300,000 it would cost to purchase the tower and property.
”We looked at matching fund programs,” Mr. Berkowsky said. “But it’s just the wrong economic time. Everyone wants to save it, but no one has any great ideas where the money’s supposed to come from.”
Anyone with ideas or who wish to make a donation are encouraged to call 609-860-1889 or e-mail the society at historycenter@comcast.net.
