At Your Service

I just noticed this truck the other day in one of the weird COP parking lots under the Minnesota Freeway. I'm sure he's been there for a long time, in a forgotten corner of the gravel lot where city vehicles go to die.

This one is even more curious since Powell Valley was a weird little independent water district out in SE Portland, about 39,000 customers between the 205 & Gresham. It held its own until 2005 when it was absorbed (sorry) into the Portland Water Bureau. I imagine this truck as one of the three vehicles they were using out there that the Water Bureau decided to keep around for posterity.

I really liked Mr. Dropsy (not his real name) and had to look for some other images of this loyal public utility mascot and found him still alive and well, and a little updated, still the jovial face of various water utility districts around the country.