PERRYSBURG – One of the people involved in creating the artwork on the original city water tower is offering context on those much-discussed silhouettes.

Lynn Sojak was in business with George Moy, the artist who designed the original silhouette art that is on the tower. Soy, who is deceased, and Sojak were colleagues from 1990-2002 in a graphic design firm called Summit Communications.

Sojak, in an interview with the Sentinel-Tribune, said that racial issues about the art were not mentioned as the water tower work evolved. Soy was Chinese, she said.

“It was designed by a non-white person, and it’s been up there for about 30 years,” Sojak said. “When we did it 30 years ago, the issues of racial diversity and inclusion, that wasn’t really anything that people were talking about, not that it didn’t exist … but it wasn’t at the top of the mind, especially with white people. … It was nothing controversial.”

She said that when she moved to Perrysburg from New Jersey, for her senior year of high school, there was very little ethnic diversity in the community.

“I’m sure that has changed, but diversity wasn’t really something people paid attention to,” Sojak said. “Now I think it is very appropriate that people are upset that they are just going to repaint it as it was.”

“I think the twist they are taking on it is that these are Black figures on a light-colored background, so they are playing off of that. But there is no one up there that appears to be of any other background, you know everyone appears to have white, or flowing hair, and there are no diverse body sizes. As far as I remember, there is no one shown with a disability. So it’s not a very inclusive look up there.”

Sojak does not consider the change of color, from black to blue, to be enough of a change.

“I think that if they are going to change the color, it should be more representative of people, all people,” she added. “I think it is very timely and the powers-that-be do need to consider this. They need to have somebody update it with it being more inclusive of everyone.”

Sojak said the inspiration for the art was a directive to show a variety of families enjoying life in a nice town.

“It wasn’t like we were hired to do it, we offered to do it,” she said. “After further reflection, I do recall that there was a lengthy back and forth with the city during the process as to what activities should be incorporated”.

Sojak is now retired and lives in Iowa.

Debate about the art on the tower, which is silhouettes of families playing with their children, initially centered around fiscal responsibility issues and involving the community in updates to the art. It took a racial turn at the last council meeting when the option for maintaining the current silhouettes became a formal motion.

The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that the tower needs maintenance that would involve removing the current paint and repainting the tower. The project has a narrow window of time to be accomplished because of weather and heat. The work is estimated to start in April and be finished before summer. During that time the tower would also have to be drained.

Council approved the maintenance and painting cost of $438,725 by Seven Brothers Painting Inc. The elevated water tank is located on Ohio 199; $800,000 had been budgeted.

Several council members complained at previous meetings that they had not been consulted by the administration about the water tower art work.

Council last week approved maintaining the silhouettes, but with a modern update. The new rebranded logo colors would be used, with the black becoming cobalt blue. Council also approved spending up to an additional $55,000.