A 10-year endeavor to restore Millstadt’s historic former water tower has finally come to a close as the final brush stroke on the beloved “Tin Man” was performed earlier this month.

Betty Keller Timmer started the Friends of the Old Millstadt Water Tower organization in 2013 and has continued to oversee it through the past decade of fundraising and final year of restoration.

She is, to put it mildly, quite relieved this project has finally been completed.

“We’ve had a lot of obstacles thrown at us, but God’s seen us through every step of the way, and we achieved it,” Keller Timmer said.

The project started, as Keller Timmer recalled, when she heard the Millstadt Village Board was looking to take the tower down in 2013.

As a member of the Millstadt Historical Society, Keller Timmer couldn’t stand to see a landmark so iconic for her and much of the rest of the community lost, so she sought the help of fellow Millstadt residents as well as an outsider with experience in major preservation projects.

Judy DeMoisy of Collinsville had previously worked to restore her community’s historic water tower which also stands as the world’s largest catsup bottle.

Though not originally from Collinsville, she found a distinct affection for the tower, saying “it was like having your own little Eiffel Tower in your own home town,” and she began pushing to have it repainted just after three months of living in the community.

With her experience organizing fundraising efforts and handling local bureaucracy, Keller Timmer reached out to see if she could help with the Tin Man.

And help she did, though DeMoisy commended Keller Timmer for her tenacity in overseeing the project over the last few years.

“I just kinda helped her through all that because I had certainly been down that road,” DeMoisy said. “She has certainly persevered and done a wonderful job of continuing. There’s always naysayers, but when you believe in it, you just have to keep going, and she has possessed that ‘stick-with-it-ness.’”

Concerning the reason behind Keller Timmer and DeMoisy’s restoration interest, DeMoisy noted she has a background in historic preservation and architecture.

She stressed the importance of roadside architecture and its role in establishing a community’s personality.

DeMoisy also spoke about the importance of having a piece of local history to connect a community to its past.

“I think preserving our history gives us a connection to all of the really wonderful things that our ancestors did for us,” DeMoisy said. “Just that whole thing of knowing where things came from rather than being lost. You don’t have to be from a community to appreciate the heritage.”

Keller Timmer expressed a similar sentiment, noting the pride that can come from a community’s heritage.

She also mentioned Millstadt’s Liederkranz Hall which was torn down some time ago, saying she didn’t want the community to lose another piece of its history.

Naturally, Keller Timmer also had a personal connection to the old water tower. She spoke about driving home when she was younger and knowing she was home when she saw the Tin Man in the distance.

Particularly on dark and snowy winter nights, Keller Timmer said that tower was like a beacon home for her.

She said she’s heard many other such stories from Millstadt residents over the years.

“I just can’t picture this town without that little Tin Man on the horizon,” Keller Timmer said. “And other people have got similar stories. I had one couple I heard that was where they shared their first kiss was underneath the Millstadt water tower. And then there used to be, when I was a kid growing up, there was a park there. There were see-saws and swings. I heard of kids that played ball there all the time in that park. Everybody’s got a story about it.”

It was those stories and the affinity for the water tower and community in general that made the restoration possible.

Keller Timmer recalled the many fundraisers the Friends of the Old Millstadt Water Tower have put together over the last few years, noting how much of the support came from folks who came from outside the village – either those who moved away or total strangers.

She specifically mentioned a bake sale where a Lamborghini pulled up and the table was approached by a man who asked for chocolate and wound up making a noteworthy donation for some brownies.

“He hands me a $100 bill,” Timmer said. “I said, ‘Thank you! How much change do you want?’ He goes, ‘Nothing. I want to do my part.’ He’s probably never been to Millstadt since or before. That’s the kind of stuff that kept us going.”

Despite exceptional generosity and the ultimate success, the project, as to be expected, was hardly smooth sailing the entire time.

Keller Timmer spoke about how the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an extension with the contract the restoration organization had with the village.

Even more recently, the actual restoration ran into a couple of snags, from rough weather to a misleadingly calm day of sandblasting the Tin Man’s exterior that ended with the containment unit getting blown by a sudden gust of wind, messing with the water tower’s roof.

Additionally, while the project itself has concluded, there still remains some fundraising to do as a late addition to the plans involving cleaning the Tin Man’s interior for longevity’s sake has left the organization with a bit more money to pay off.

Regardless, there’s sure to be much celebration in Millstadt now the project is finished.

DeMoisy expressed her pleasure at seeing Millstadt manage to keep its iconic tower.

“I’m very, very happy for them to have something,” DeMoisy said. “It does take maintenance. We’ve had to repaint the Ketchup Bottle several times, but having festivals and parties to celebrate the fact that the community has built this… It’s a nice gift for the community to enjoy.”

Marianne Schaefer, who joined Keller Timmer in the restoration from the project’s start, spoke similarly, noting she was relieved to see it all finished.

Schaefer also noted that the final version of the tower was originally meant to just have the village’s name, but an adjustment with the company hired to paint the tower added the words “village of.”

Keller Timmer, too, shared how she feels now that everything is done with.

“Thankful and relieved,” Timmer said. “I was saying this for 10 years, ‘I will start breathing normally when the last brush stroke is made.’ So that happened last week, I can breathe a little easier now.”

Looking to the future, the Friends of the Old Millstadt Water Tower still have a few more fundraisers left, but, for now, it seems like the Tin Man will keep standing strong for years to come.

Concerning the previously mentioned fundraisers, a trivia night/silent auction will take place Jan. 27 and the Millstadt Tin Man Half Marathon and 5K Run will take place May 19.

For more information, call 618-520-3623 or email millstadttinman@gmail.com.