DAVIDSON—Ideas continue to brew on how to best preserve Davidson’s iconic coffee pot, but action has yet to be taken.
The coffee pot is showing its age.
The two painted murals that display images of community hospitality and local history on the coffee pot are faded. The mural on the east side depicting a community in motion is particularly faded with the red paint that once coloured the transport truck and Canada flag worn away.
Given the fact it has stood by the highway for 18 years, exposed to the hot summer sun and all manner of storms from wind, hail, rain to winter blizzards, “It’s actually fared very well,” said Austin Eade who engineered the coffee pot.
The 5,000 pound, 24 feet high steel pot was built in 1996 at Harvest Services in Craik.
Eade said the rusting of the metal is due to the paint having worn off and if the paint had lasted longer, the pot wouldn’t have rusted.
“It’s like any metal product,” he said. “It will deteriorate if it isn’t weatherproofed soon.”
Restoring the coffee pot continues to be a topic of discussion around Davidson town council’s table.
At its meeting in September, town council discussed some options.
Ideally, any restoration would preserve the painted murals that are symbols of Davidson’s history, rural hospitality and its motto of a “community in motion”.
Artist Kelly Thorson, who painted the murals 18 years ago, had previously suggested having vinyl panels of the murals made and installing them on the pot.
Mayor Clayton Schneider said he looked into the costs of having vinyl wraps made of the murals. These would be similar to vehicle wraps like the ones used on STC buses, he explained.
Cost of the wraps is about $4,500 plus installation costs of about $5,000. Schneider said the wraps are not a permanent solution because they last four or five years.
At $9,500 the wrap option was deemed too expensive for something that was good for only a few years.
“As far as that goes, we’ll try and figure something else out,” he said.