Broken 40-year-old clock in Vincennes park now tells time

VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) - Time is of the essence in Shirley's Pocket Park.

Three years ago, just as members of the city's Urban Enterprise Association geared up to finish the long-awaited "pocket park" in the 400 block of Main Street next to the Pantheon Theatre, they sought an aesthetic focal point to tie it all together.

Thoughts first turned to a water feature - a fountain of some kind - but as the budget tightened, UEA board chairman Jim Zeigler had another idea: an old pedestal clock collecting dust just a block away in the KRAMAC building at 424 Vigo St.

The clock was once on display at the All-American Car Wash on Hart Street, and a former owner gave it to then Mayor Al Baldwin, who had thoughts using it somewhere in the city.

But after his unsuccessful bid for re-election, the clock was put inside the KRAMAC building, then owned by the city, its fate uncertain.

Eventually, Zeigler bought the building for his company, Ewing Printing, and as a result inherited the clock as well.

"We hadn't done anything with it," Zeigler said of the clock. "It was just sitting there. And when we went to build the pocket park, I thought, 'Heck, that's the perfect place for it."

UEA members agreed and erected it in the center of the park, which was later dedicated in UEA treasurer and veteran city council member Shirley Rose's name.

"The only problem was," Zeigler said with a chuckle, "I couldn't guarantee it would work."

And work, it certainly didn't.

UEA members, however, collectively agreed to let it be.

"It's right twice a day," Zeigler once joked during a UEA meeting.

But Rose said she continually fielded complaints from passers-by, many who wished that it would keep time.

"People kept telling me, 'It's not working.' And I'd say, 'Well, we're just slow on time,'" she said with a chuckle.

"But I eventually thought, 'Let's just get it fixed.'"

Knowing little about the history of the clock, she enlisted the help of officials at City Hall who two years ago had the large 40-year-old clock that keeps time over 201 Vigo St. repaired.

That tall, black pedestal clock - similar in style to the one in the pocket park - had, at the time, been in a state of disrepair for more than a year.

Not just anyone could work on it, given its age and condition.

Mayor Joe Yochum and city inspector Philip Cooper eventually consulted Phil Wright, an Ohio-based historic clock specialist who, it turned out, maintains the clock atop the Knox County Courthouse.

Rose asked Wright whether he had the time to repair the pocket park clock, and after a month getting a little TLC in Ohio, the clock is now back and in working order.

Rose is thrilled to see it ticking again, but she was a taken aback when she got the $1,800 bill.

"It was for two clocks," she said with a laugh. "I didn't understand, but then (Wright) explained to me, it is two clocks. I never thought about it before, but if you look at it from the front then walk around to the back, there is a whole other clock.

"But now it's fixed, and it looks really nice," Rose said. "And, now, you'll know what time it is - both coming and going."

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Source: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, http://bit.ly/2sqfKBO

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Information from: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, http://www.vincennes.com