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Clock chimes again
BY MARGO OXENDINE • CONTRIBUTING WRITER
 | | The clock atop the Warm Springs courthouse is chiming again, every hour on the hour. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
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WARM SPRINGS - It's 11 a.m. You've forgotten your watch. How do you know the time?
If you're out and about in Warm Springs, a missing watch is no problem. The clock on the courthouse tower chimes on the hour. Every hour.
Folks who live in or visit Warm Springs can't stop talking about the fact that the clock tower is chiming again. It's a help, a small comfort, a harkening back to former days.
We can thank Judge Humes Franklin, of the 25th Circuit Court; Danny Cox, who supervises the county's buildings and grounds; and of course, a talented man we don't know, Phil Wright, a clocksmith from S. Charleston, Ohio.
Judge Franklin thought it a shame, Cox said recently, that the 1914 Seth Thomas clock atop the courthouse no longer chimed on the hour. It hasn't made a sound for about a decade.
So Cox got busy. He researched the solution, and found Wright, who specializes in repairing historic tower clocks throughout the southeastern United States.
When Wright arrived June 26 to check out the courthouse clock tower, he had some climbing to do: the tower is accessed through an opening in the courthouse ceiling, and then via a narrow ladder.
While it took Wright just a day to get the old clock chiming again, there is still something lacking: the south and west faces are each missing a hand. Wright can help with this, too.
All work done by Wright and The Tower Clock Co. is fully guaranteed for five years.
"We're hoping that, before long, he can have that clock in ship-shape," said Cox. "We'd like to have it completely rehabilitated."
After that, the county can contract with Wright for regular annual maintenance of the clock, which will cost about $475.
For now, "the clock seems to be keeping perfect time," Cox noted. "We're really, really excited about that; this fellow certainly knows what he's doing."
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