🌎Get ready for #HamOnt's entry into the #TVORoadsideShowdown: the big globe at the wastewater plant. Maybe it’s not what you’d immediately think of as a roadside attraction, but Mr. Steve Paikin himself supports it, so hear me out. [1/7] 
https://twitter.com/spaikin/status/1425822462974087168
The globe (30 metres tall and 24 metres in diameter) is really a steel gas tank built in 1970. Located on the grounds of the Woodward wastewater plant, it’s visible to anyone walking along the Waterfront Trail and to the 130,000 drivers who pass it on the QEW each day. [2/7]
As I've reported previously (tvo.org/article/ontari…), the tank is part of a cogeneration unit turning methane from wastewater sludge into electricity. It's a bit of a mystery why the tank was painted to look like Earth. [3/7]
Mark Bainbridge, #HamOnt's director of water & wastewater planning, says he and his team don’t know why. The public library archives helped me look but all I know for sure is a '72 Spec article reported it would take at least 25 gallons of yellow paint to fill in the land. [4/7]
By 2017, that paint had lost its sheen, and the tank was looking worse for wear — so it got a revamp (thespec.com/news/hamilton-…). Bainbridge said there was no desire to change the well-known design. The redesign also got the globe into a Tank of the Year contest. [5/7]
It was controversial for a non-water tank to be entered and Hamilton lost to Katy Texas, but now the globe has a chance. Bainbridge: “It is a unique kind of shape to see in a major urban centre. It has a definite function that relates to the well-being of our community.” [6/7]
So voting for the #TVORoadsideShowdown starts at the end of this month and in my totally biased opinion, there are only two real choices: that shiny globe or the dimension-bending floral clock in Niagara (
https://twitter.com/mr_lois_lane/status/1412882336019107843?s=20) Choose wisely. [7/7]
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