GREENWOOD (KFSM)—The city is one step closer to the completion of the historic bell tower that stands in the heart of the town square.
On Wednesday (Nov. 4), workers used a crane to install the refurbished 1917 bell, as they wait for the arrival of the new clock.
“The old bell bronze bell was covered in paint,” Parks Director Richard McKinney said. “We got some aircraft paint stripper and cleaned off all that, so now what you see is the actual bronze bell. That`ll age gracefully.”
The historic clock tower in Greenwood has been undergoing a facelift for the past several months.
“This is really huge for Greenwood to get the bell back in the bell tower here on the square,” Mayor Doug Kinslow said. “It`s been an icon of Greenwood for several years. It was placed here in 1976.”
The construction team first had to replace a rotted wood support beam with a steel one. The parks director said the process did take an hour longer than expected.
“It had a little bit of a glitch when they were putting it up, and we had to do a little bit of field modification to make it fit in there just perfect, and the guys got their torches and welders out and took care of that,” McKinney said.
Since the clock faces from 1976 are still in good condition, they will be put back in the tower. Meanwhile, new clock mechanisms are being shipped in from Ohio.
“We hope to get them early next week, and as soon as that happens then we'll be able to bring these clock faces back to life,” McKinney said. “We'll come in and install the clock works behind those. We'll put the new decorative arms on the front, and then we'll hoist them back up to the top.”
The original clock survived a tornado in 1968.
“It came out of our old courthouse, so that`s very very important that that stayed part of our history and continue on to future generations to enjoy it,” McKinney said.
The Greenwood Parks Department is pushing to have the work complete by the end of the month. All the repairs are costing the city about $50,000 and was partly paid for through a grant.