LYNWOOD —The city’s four deteriorating water towers are no longer a part of the city’s water system, but thanks to a contribution from CrownCastle International, three of the giant, newly painted bright blue with gold lettering towers will stay on their landmark sites for many years to come.

As city officials contemplated what to do with the unsightly towers, CrownCastle, which leases the towers for cell phone antennas, was asked about restoring them, since demolishing them would cost the city in the range of $50,000 each.

The city got a confident “no problem” from CrownCastle, said Dan Ojeda, director of public works and engineering.

“They came in and painted the towers on their dime,” he said. “The towers haven’t been a part of the city’s water system for a long, long time … they’re very old and over the years have become more of an eyesore than anything else, so it was either tear them down or restore them.”

As part of a condition to continue using the water towers as antennas, CrownCastle agreed to pay for the towers’ facelifts.

Ojeda said that according to CrownCastle, it cost between $70,000 to $80,000 to restore each of the water towers.

There are four giant water towers in the city. However, one of them — the one that is visible from the Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway — stands on private property associated with the owners of Plaza Mexico.

That tower is no longer property of the city and is not used by CrownCastle. City officials, however, have submitted a request to the property owners to restore that water tower to match the other three.

“Considering you can see that water tower from the freeway, it would be nice if the property owner would restore that water tower, too,” Ojeda said.

The 12 feet high three water towers include a 7-foot-high city logo with 3-foot high gold/lettering. The city paid for the logo and for the lettering, Ojeda said. Costs for all three was minimal, he said. “It cost probably under $2,000. … Stencils were used.”

City records show that the water towers were probably last painted in the early 1970s, but the actual dates cannot be confirmed.

But they were the first thing Ojeda noticed when he first drove around the city four years ago after he was hired.

“I thought to myself, wow, either those need some new paint or they need to come down,” he said.

Over the last couple of years, his department has been researching the costs of restoring the towers or demolishing them — but both were too expensive for the city to undertake during these economic times, he said.

Water towers were once quite common, Ojeda said. There is one in Santa Ana, where he used to work, one in South Gate and one in Huntington Park.

“Some are decorated and some aren’t, some are part of the water system and some aren’t,” he said. “Point is, you don’t really notice them unless you’re driving around looking for them. I noticed them here on my first day of work, but that’s because I’m an engineer and I’m actually looking for them.”

Water towers in Midwestern states are very common, Ojeda said.

“If you’re in the Midwest, everywhere you go, you will see a water tower,” he said.

“There was no more paint on our water towers, you couldn’t even see the city’s name on them, the paint was so faded. … They were in really bad shape.”

Restoring the water towers not only allows the city to keep three of its signature parcels in their place, but it also restores community pride, Ojeda said.

Mayor Maria Santillan, a resident of the city for 20 years, said she is happy with the way the water towers turned out and she likes the color scheme that was selected by staff, too. The color matches the city’s bus stop shelters.

“The new paint goes a long way. Thank you to the [cell phone] company,” she said. “We’ve been asking Plaza Mexico to put Lynwood on their sign for years, but they haven’t. … These newly painted towers are representative of the positive changes the city has undergone. They identify a new Lynwood.”

While CrownCastle is a major international company, it’s always good to hear when companies like that reach into their pockets to give back to their small community partners like Lynwood, Santillan said.

“We appreciate it,” she said.