The only thing left to be decided regarding West Salem’s new water tower is whether to paint it white, Harvester blue or Panther orange and black.

A bid for construction of a new reservoir to be located in the east part of the village was awarded to a Minnesota company at a special West Salem Village Board meeting Aug. 13.

Engineering America of Oakdale, Minn., submitted the lowest bid of $1,941,000.

Other bids came from Landmark ($1,981,000) of Fort Worth, Texas , CBI Constructors ($2,056,000) of Plainfield, Ill. , Caldwell Tanks ($2,071,000) of Louisville, Ky., and Phoenix Fabricators ($2,326,000) of Sebree, Ky.

“This wasn’t an easy decision for me,” said project engineer David Sauer of Foth Infrastructure & Environment. “It took me some time.”

Sauer presented an analysis to the village Utility Committee, which compared Engineering America’s low bid against Landmark’s, which came in second-lowest.

The committee decided not to make a recommendation, leaving the decision to the full board, which met immediately after the committee.

It was an apples-to-oranges comparison that in the end came down to future costs.

Engineering America’s bid called for a 750,000 gallon, bolted steel tank that will need to be re-seamed every 15 to 20 years at an estimated cost of $30,000.

Landmark’s bid called for a 750,000 gallon, welded tank that would need to be repainted every 15 to 20 years at a cost of $150,000.

Long-range costs of the two projects put Engineering America’s bid even further ahead of its competitors. The total cost of its project over 20 years is $1,971,000 compared with Landmark, which becomes $2,131,000 when painting and sealing are considered.

The three other bids all called for welded steel tanks and would bear long-term maintenance costs similar to the Landmark bid.

Engineering America has built 23 liquid storage tanks 750,000 gallon or larger since 2003. Water tanks similar in appearance to West Salem’s have been built in Cashton and Winona, Minn.

The Winona tank is about 90 percent complete, and only portions of the watermain remain to be completed, a company spokesman said Monday.

Sauer said the initial engineering estimate for the project was $1.3 million but a significant increase in the price of steel has pushed costs up.

The most prevalent comparison mentioned at last week’s meeting was to a Harvester silo in terms of appearance.

The water reservoir will be on the east end of Garland Street past the county farm buildings on a tract of land purchased from La Crosse County in June.

The project is slated for completion by the end of 2009.

Any decision on the color of the water tower, is being carefully considered.

“We’re going to be looking at this forever,” said Trustee Terry Hanson.

The motion to award the bid passed unanimously.