Published: April 05, 2009 11:44 pm      

Lilly hoping clock repairs can be completed by Easter

LILLY — If all goes as planned, the chime on the town clock – missing for several months – soon will resume its role in the daily lives of Lilly residents.

Religious and civic leaders hope the chime of the more than century old clock in the tower of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church will be chiming every hour on the hour this week.

“Our hope is to have the clock functioning by Easter,” said the Rev. John Palko, pastor of St. Luke’s.

While housed in the Lutheran church, the four-faced timepiece is viewed as an integral part of this small Mainline town.

It is the most highly recognized landmark and an icon, said Debbie George, whose father for years regularly climbed the narrow steps to care for it.

“It is the town clock. It just so happened it was put in our church,” George said.

It is so much a part of the community that it is featured on the cover of “The Spirit of a Community,” the Lilly-Washington Township bicentennial book released in 2008.

Repairs last were made in the 1970s. Renovating the tower and clock was proposed by Palko six years ago when he took over as pastor.

The stone wall serving as a barrier between the church and busy Route 53 also needed reworked.

The church and the town set out to raise funds and – while the wall has been repaired, save a small area to allow for repair of the clock tower – a broken spring in the clock last year stopped it and spurred residents to action.

Speciality Roofing of Windber started work several weeks ago with a focus on shoring up the tower. Workers removed the shingles from near the clock face and installed plywood, getting it ready for new shingles.

The total project cost is now at $46,000, money that has been raised though soup and bake sales, donations by St. Luke’s parishioners and residents eager to once again hear the chime of the clock.

The Lilly American Legion donated $5,000 toward the project while the Lilly Sokol Club chipped in $2,000.

This community support is not unusual.

The clock is so much a part of the town, that in the mid-1960s, at the urging of the Rev. John Cochran, then pastor at St. Luke’s, and local leaders organized a fund drive and the tower and clock were renovated.

In 1967, Lilly Borough Council assumed the monthly cost of keeping the tower lit and the clock running.

A separate electric meter was installed at the church and Borough Council continues to pay the bill, which averages $45 a month.

“We take care of the electric bill to keep the clock lighted and running,” Lilly Borough Council President John Nezneski said. “The people are proud to have the clock and it’s in such a beautiful church.”

The German-manufactured timepiece was installed in 1904 when the church with its massive stained-glass windows was built on the corner of Cleveland Street, also Route 53.

The clock tower was included because it was something the community wanted and needed, said local historian Jim Salony.

While the lead hands are original, the hand-wound motor was replaced in the 1920s and other refurbishing was done in the ’70s, he said.

“It was the citizens of the town, the Catholics, the Methodists, the Lutherans. We wanted the clock,” Salony said.

For George and others who worked hard to raise money for the project, no price can be attached to the importance of the clock.

“We may not have been financially rich, but we grew up wealthy. The town clock was one of those things that made us wealthy,” she said.