MERIDIAN, Idaho (KBOI) -- Novelist Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein, once said: "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change."
Maybe that explains the reaction on social media to a Meridian city council member's suggestion that the Meridian Water Tower could use some freshening up, a new look, a makeover.
The 134-foot-tall, yellow Meridian Water Tower is one of the most iconic and visible Treasure Valley landmarks.
Council member Ty Palmer says he was discussing it with his wife just the other day.
"I said, 'what do you think, if we painted it white, with the new city logo?' She was like, 'I wonder what that would look like?' So I whipped out my phone and photo-shopped it," Palmer tells KBOI 2News.
When he posted the whole thing on Facebook, reaction was swift and in one case brutal.
"One guy called me an idiot for even just even having the thought," Palmer says, laughing. "Last I checked there were some 400 comments, most were against it."
But hundreds of others on Facebook clicked like or "hearted" the side-by-side rendering.
Still, Palmer says there's nothing being presented to the city council, he just wanted to gauge public opinion.
"It's never even been discussed. At least while I've been on the council. I just put it together to see what the public thought about it," he says. "That's what's important to me. I feel like I'm representing the people who elected me."
Palmer says he's not sure what it would even cost, but is looking into it and figures it could be done when the tower is scheduled for its regular re-painting.
But again, it's just an idea, a suggestion...there's "no great and sudden change" planned.
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