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TAYLOR, Weber County — What started as a high school student's graffiti has become a longtime landmark in the west side of Weber County, and it will soon get a new paint job.
Many people in the town of Taylor who live around the water tower have grown fond of the bat symbol, which has been a fixture since a student painted it on the facade in the 1990s.
"A kid from Fremont High School painted a 'Batman' sign on the water tower here," Chad Gibson, a resident in Taylor, recalled, "and the water tower in Plain City, which we all thought was super cool at the time."
Ryan Rogers, Taylor West Weber Water District manager, agrees with that synopsis of what happened, calling the bat symbol "a symbol for the community and kind of a landmark.
A former manager for the district told KSL-TV that none of the area teenagers would fess up to knowing the perpetrator — or perpetrators — at the time, though he had suspicions about one teen in particular.
Now, roughly 25 years later, the paint has become significantly faded, and Rogers said it's time for a fresh coat. Rather than remove the bat symbol, however, he says the district came up with the idea of instead representing the new West Field High School by painting the Longhorn logo on the tower.
He added he reached out to the principal and student body leadership at West Field and has yet to hear back, though people in the town are already voicing their support.
"If they wanted to change it and put a Longhorn up there, I think it would be pretty cool for the community," Gibson said.
