The exterior repaint of Helen City Hall, a capital-maintenance project first announced by Public Works Director Gene Sattler in October 2025 and now 11 weeks behind its original January completion date, has entered what Director Sattler described Wednesday as "the final selection phase."

Twelve paint candidates remain under consideration.

All 12 are yellow.

The maximum measured color difference between any two of the 12 candidates — expressed in Delta-E units, the industry-standard metric for quantifying the perceptual distance between two colors — is 2.4. Professional colorists generally characterize a Delta-E difference of 2.4 as "barely perceptible under ideal lighting conditions." A Delta-E difference below 1.0 is generally considered imperceptible to the human eye.

The 12 candidates have been displayed on a 4-by-8-foot sheet of exterior-grade plywood mounted on two sawhorses in the City Hall parking lot off Bruckenstrasse since February 26. As of Thursday, the display had been in place for 23 days.

No City Council member has publicly stated a preference for any of the 12 candidates.

Why The Current Paint Cannot Be Reused

The paint currently on Helen City Hall's exterior is Benjamin Moore "Bavarian Butter Churn HC-31," a warm mid-tone yellow in the company's Historical Colors collection. The City has painted City Hall in Bavarian Butter Churn since at least 1992, when City maintenance records indicate the first documented application of the color.

Benjamin Moore discontinued Bavarian Butter Churn HC-31 in September 2025 as part of a broader rationalization of its Historical Colors line. The company's product page for HC-31, which the Bavarian Brainrot newsroom accessed in February, now redirects to a landing page with the notation "This color has been discontinued. Please speak with a Benjamin Moore retailer about alternatives."

Director Sattler, in his October 2025 announcement, described the discontinuation as "an unexpected complication." He indicated at the time that the paint-selection process would take "four to six weeks."

That timeline has elapsed twice.

The Twelve Candidates

The 12 candidates displayed on the parking-lot mock-up are drawn from four manufacturers: Benjamin Moore (four candidates), Sherwin-Williams (three candidates), PPG (three candidates), and Behr (two candidates). Director Sattler, contacted Wednesday afternoon at the Public Works office, provided the Bavarian Brainrot newsroom with the complete list of candidate names and Delta-E measurements relative to the discontinued HC-31.

They are:

Benjamin Moore Sundance Yellow HC-30 (Delta-E from HC-31: 0.9), Benjamin Moore Hawthorne Yellow HC-4 (Delta-E: 1.3), Benjamin Moore Pale Straw 2149-50 (Delta-E: 1.7), Benjamin Moore Lemon Ice OC-120 (Delta-E: 2.1). Sherwin-Williams Forsythia SW 6903 (Delta-E: 1.1), Sherwin-Williams Antique White SW 6119 (Delta-E: 2.2), Sherwin-Williams Butter Up SW 6681 (Delta-E: 1.8). PPG Canary Feather PPG1207-3 (Delta-E: 1.5), PPG Lemon Drop PPG1205-3 (Delta-E: 2.0), PPG Yellow Iris PPG1201-4 (Delta-E: 2.4). Behr Sunlit Honey M300-4 (Delta-E: 1.6), Behr Bavarian Gold S310-4 (Delta-E: 1.9).

Director Sattler noted that the candidate list had been "deliberately scoped to maintain color continuity with the City's established aesthetic identity." He characterized the 2.4 Delta-E range as "a thoughtful, constrained palette."

The Bavarian Brainrot newsroom asked Director Sattler whether the City had considered any colors outside the yellow register. He indicated it had not.

What The Council Has Said

The five-member Helen City Council was provided with the candidate list and the mock-up location at the February 24 regular meeting. Director Sattler presented the Delta-E data in a six-slide presentation and invited Council members to visit the mock-up at their convenience and share preferences with his office.

In the 23 days since, no Council member has shared a preference with Director Sattler's office, per the Director's account Wednesday.

Council Member Teri Hapscomb, contacted Thursday afternoon, said she had visited the mock-up once, on a cloudy day, and had found the candidates "pretty similar." She said she had not yet formed a view.

Council Member Phil Runyon said he planned to visit the mock-up "this weekend, if the weather holds."

Council Member Dale Osgood did not return calls.

Council Member Raymond Frick said he was "leaving it to the professionals." When asked which professionals, he indicated Director Sattler.

Mayor Clarence Voelker, reached Friday morning, said the City was "not going to rush a decision that residents will have to look at for the next thirty years." He indicated he found the current mock-up display "informative."

The Schedule

Director Sattler's original project timeline, as presented to the Council in October 2025, called for paint selection by November 15, contractor bid opening by December 1, contractor award by December 15, and work completion by January 31, 2026.

The paint has not yet been selected. The repaint is now scheduled for spring 2026, per the Public Works office's current project status page, with a completion date listed as "TBD pending paint selection."

The original January completion date assumed work could be performed during the mild-weather window before the Helen tourist season's full spring ramp-up in late March. Director Sattler acknowledged Wednesday that the project would now likely run during the early-spring peak period, which would require lane closures and parking restrictions around the City Hall lot on Bruckenstrasse.

The tourist season opens, by convention, at the beginning of April.

The Mock-Up

The plywood mock-up in the parking lot is, per Public Works records, the first formal exterior paint mock-up in the history of City Hall maintenance. Previous repaints used direct manufacturer color matches to the Bavarian Butter Churn standard without a mock-up process.

Director Sattler confirmed that the mock-up was his idea, introduced to ensure that the selected paint would "read correctly under Helen's actual light conditions." He noted that paint colors can appear different outdoors than they do on manufacturer chips.

The mock-up is oriented to face Bruckenstrasse, and receives approximately five hours of direct sunlight per day. It has, per Director Sattler, been observed informally by "several dozen" passersby, some of whom have offered comments to Public Works staff.

He did not characterize the substance of those comments.

The selection deadline, per the revised project schedule, is April 7. Director Sattler expressed confidence the deadline would be met.

— Margaret Holcomb