How do they paint the town names onto water towers? Do they use
stickers or stencils or what?

Interesting question -- 
Here's a site for a company which specializes in water towers:
http://www.watertowercleaningandpainting.com/

There's not a lot of information about the actual painting process,
but they do design the "picture" on computers - I would think it would
be a process similar to billboard painting, using a grid to transfer
the pattern. Stencils would be difficult to do on a large curved
surface, I think.

I did a Google search  - painting water towers to come up with this
link.

---

Clarification of Answer by jab-ga on 30 Jan 2003 12:10 PST

Here's a reply from the water tower painting company: 
"Thank you for your inquiry XXXX.  To answer your question, if a logo is need
of repainting we simply paint over it.  If the town is wanting a new logo we
have them submit to us what they propose and we computer design it to fit
the curvature of their tank.  We have many interesting custom designs for
towns who want to add some character to there tower.  From the towns sport
theme to the towns historical significants there are all sorts creative
ideas to bring some attention to a towns tank."
Does that answer your question? Do you need any further information?

Hi Kchare,

I guess Jab and I had the same idea as it seems we both emailed the
same company.  He got his answer back first, but the reply I got back
today had a tad more info in it, so I'm going to post that fyi.

From: Scrub A Home 
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 7:30 AM
Subject: Re: Question

Thank you ***** for your inquiry.  Bob Santure is the owner of Water
Tower Cleaning and Painting. He will be out of town until February
5th.  We use vinyl or stencils when applying a logo.  In some cases we
paint over the existing logo.  Hope this answers some of your
questions.  You can contact Bob Santure by 734-429-1828 after Feb 5th
if you have any more questions.

Thank you,
Paula
Scrub A Home - We Clean It All 
Call for estimate (734) 429-1828

Go ahead and give 'em a call if you like.  They sound friendly, and
would probably be happy to answer your questions in more detail.

Best wishes,
--Byrd