The group collected $3,608 more than was needed.
LEWISTON – Extra effort by Lewiston youths will allow the city to install a historic clock and dress up its surroundings.
An effort to put the city’s E. Howard mechanical clock on public display pulled together $25,608.
The Lewiston Youth Advisory Council presented the check – $3,608 more than was originally needed – to Mayor Lionel Guay Tuesday to pay for the work.
Council advisor Dot Perham-Whittier said the additional money will be used to turn the second floor landing where the clock will sit into a historic Lewiston showcase.
“We’ll be asking members of the public to share and donate historic pictures and items to enhance that space,” Perham-Whittier said. “We really want to turn the area around the clock into a historical landing.”
Public buildings Director Mike Paradis said work on the clock display is scheduled to begin in March and wrap up before July 4.
Plans call for putting the clock mechanism on the landing between the second and third floors in Lewiston City Hall. A hole will be cut in the floor for the clock’s pendulum, which will be encased in a first-floor, floor-to-ceiling glass display case. The clock itself will be encased in glass on the second-floor landing and a rod will connect it to the clock faces in the tower above the building.
“We want the floors to be much more attractive,” Paradis said. “This project is not only about the clock and the case, but about making that entire area more attractive.”
Background
The clock was built by Edward Howard, co-founder of the first watch manufacturing company in the United States, about 1891. It sat in the tower of Lewiston City Hall until November 2001, when Balzer Family Clockworks of Freeport removed it for repairs and maintenance. They returned it to City Hall in June 2002. The clock has sat in the entrance to the third-floor Community Development Department ever since.
The youth council signed on to raise money to display the clock last summer. They created a video-documentary about the clock with Great Falls TV and presented it the Lewiston-Auburn Chamber of Commerce, the Optimist Club and the Lewiston City Council.
Youth council members also sponsored a 12-hour rockathon on Jan. 2 to raise money. That effort netted them a $2,500 grant from Modern Woodman of America and more than $5,000.
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