For years the clock that sits in front of the Westmoreland County Courthouse offered the correct time just twice a day.
The four-sided timepiece has sat at the edge of Courthouse Square for three decades, having been donated to the city in 1991 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Greensburg Rotary Club.
The clock originally was bought from the Verdin Company in Cincinnati on Dec. 6, 1990, for $18,900. Each club member was assessed $225 to pay for its purchase and installation, said club secretary Mark Barnhart.
Westmoreland County leased a 4-foot area to the city to house the clock and provide electricity that powers the timepiece. The city, in return, is required to “keep the Town Clock in clean, attractive and good working condition during the term of this lease.”
The lease runs through 2041.
“It tells you what time it is,” said former county Commissioner Charles Anderson, who previously served as Rotary president and spearheaded an effort in 2009 shortly after he took office to return the clock to working order. “I used to drive to an appointment and look over and see what time it was, to see if I was on time and to see if it was working.”
And it wasn’t working at various times over the last 30 years.
It’s hands, according to a 2009 report in the Tribune-Review, had been stuck at 1:10 for more than a year before the first repairs were made. Those fixes cost about $6,000 that was split evenly among the county, city and Rotary.
Time again stood still last year and prompted Rotary officials to obtain a repair bid that sought about $18,000 for the project. Ultimately, the bill came in at less than $738, Barnhart said.
Club member Gene James said the fix didn’t take, so he took matters into his own hands.
“I went up there with a ladder, I’m a kind of a geek, and looked at it and figured out what’s wrong. I bought a $180 part, put it in and fixed it,” James said, noting all it took was a new small motor to move time forward.
The clock itself is vintage 1990s technology with some updates. It sets time through a satellite connection and automatically resets, including last week when power was turned off by road crews as they installed new traffic lights.
A small computer operates the clock’s sound system.
Yep, the clock can chime and play music through four speakers located at the bottom of its face.
“It’s basically an MP3 player,” James said.
But, it has remained silent for years. Noise complaints from county judges after the clock was installed prompted the chimes and music to stop.
James said the sound system was disconnected during the latest round of repairs.