ROCHESTER — After construction challenges, the Plummer House Water Tower “exterior preservation” project will wrap up in the next couple of weeks. City of Rochester Parks and Forestry Division Head Mike Nigbur said the exact date depends on rain. The scaffolding, which was used in replacing the roof, and repairing exterior stucco and tuckpointing stone, will remain as the lower concrete staircase is replaced.
The project’s goal is to preserve the water tower for the next 100 years. “The weather’s not been very cooperative with us,” Nigbur said of completing this phase of the project. The city owns and maintains the Plummer House grounds.
“The original schedule was to wrap it up last fall but when we found structural damage much more than we anticipated, significantly more, we rescoped that part of the project and we planned for a June-ish time frame.” While the project started in 2019 to restore the water tower, the high project costs, local funding needed and additional structural damage moved the focus to exterior elements. Nigbur hopes to apply for future grants for exterior stonework and interior work such as the stairwell.
The current project costs more than $1 million with a $383,650 federal grant and local funding. “If we can get other grants or funding sources to renovate the inside and get the stairwell put back in place and get people inside that would be great but again right now the beauty is on the outside and that’s being kept in place,” .