NORWAY – There was no sense of urgency, no immediacy.

It was just nostalgia that prompted craftsman Jim Bryant to repair the clock in the Opera House on Main Street.

“I wanted to see the old clock in good shape,” Bryant said. “I’ve known this clock for awhile.”

Indeed Bryant has gotten to know many an old clock in his 45 years of being in the repair business.

He currently oversees 23 tower clocks in towns stretching from York Village First Parish Church to the town clock in the Trinitarian Church in Castine.

He took a chance in repairing the Opera House clock because he had no approval and no guarantee he would be paid for it.

But the clock is an E. Howard, installed in 1984, and the most prominent name in tower clocks in New England.

The Boston-based company began producing tower clocks in 1840 and carried on until the 1950s.

“E. Howard clocks show up everywhere,” Bryant said. “I was just dealing with a man in St. Louis that had a sister to this clock.”

Bryant was brought in in November 2001 to do maintenance under a $500-a-year town contract.

He visits the clock at least four times per year.

“I check it over, oiling and cleaning where it needs it,” he said. “I check to make sure pigeons aren’t getting in there and I’m on call. When you get a power bump in Norway it affects the clock.”

Before last Christmas he discovered broken teeth in the striking mechanism due to a malfunction with the electric system. The clock had been electrified in late 1959 by a Massachusetts firm, according to Bryant.

He said the clock originally ran by a weight driven system that had failed. He said it would cost about $100,000 to reinstall a similar system.

“I think we can live with the electric system along as we can keep it up and adjusted properly,” Bryant said.

He said the clock would never strike again if he did not fix it in December. He remachined a couple of gears, rebuilt a rack mechanism and $3,850 later it was ready to go.

“I didn’t have permission,” he said. “I got it functioning properly by the first day of spring, March 21.”

Bryant, a retired pipe fitter, has a machine shop in Wayne, and makes parts for clocks.

He talked to Norway selectmen at their April 3 meeting asking if they could add an article to the town warrant seeking to pay him for his services.

“You didn’t go out on a limb,” he told selectmen. “I went out on a limb. But I would like to get paid.

He also told selectmen he needed about $185 for lighting in the tower to do repairs and maintenance and $400 to repair the drive shafting.

Selectmen agreed to add a warrant article seeking the full cost of $4,435.

“My main interest is the mechanical welfare of the clock,” Bryant said. “As far as paying me, well, I’ll leave it for the town to consider.”

jsmedley@sunjournal.com