NORWAY – Two local banks and Norway Downtown are working to save a former Main Street landmark.

The time and temperature clock that was a fixture on the former Norway National Bank, now a KeyBank, has been rescued from a Lewiston sign company’s salvage yard with hopes of it being restored and returned to a prominent spot downtown.

KeyBank, Norway Savings Bank and Norway Downtown, the private, nonprofit organization that is funded primarily through the town and donations from area businesses and organizations, have banded together to try to restore the clock and place it in the business district again.

“Some grew up with that clock,” said Terry Twitchell, KeyBank vice president and branch manager.

The rotating sign clock measures about 5- by 5-feet and weighs between 800 and 900 pounds. “They set their watch by it.”

The clock recently disappeared when a new digital one was put up on the front of the brick bank building, but Twitchell said it wasn’t long before people took notice and asked where the clock went.

“People started to call. There were so many people concerned about that clock. It was part of their life,” said Twitchell, who likened it to other old-time Main Street landmarks that were sorely missed, such as J.J. Newberry’s store.

Katie Letourneau, a vice president at the nearby Norway Savings Bank on Main Street, said bank employee Karen Hakala, who grew up in the area with the clock, went to lunch one day and came back to report, “‘Oh my God. They’re taking the clock down.'”

Letourneau said Norway bank officials then called Twitchell to help save the clock.

Getting the sign back wasn’t as easy as it would seem, Twitchell said.

Neocraft Signs on Main Street in Lewiston, which took the sign down and hauled it back to Lewiston, was ready to dispose of it.

Mike Sprague, service manager at Neocracrft, said Tuesday that the old clock was taken down and was intended for the salvage pile when the company got a call from someone in Norway about saving it. “We would have just junked it,” he said.

Instead, Norway business people and others called for its salvation and the sign company put it aside.

Twitchell said they needed a release from the sign company to get the sign back to town. “We needed the release and insurance verification because we needed a crane to lift it,” explained Twitchell. The clock is being stored in Norway.

The old clock was replaced with a new digital one, said Twitchell, because the original clock was so old it was almost impossible to service. Parts had to be specially manufactured in Colorado or Arizona.

Twitchell said the new clock will be straightened out in time so that it can be seen head-on by motorists driving down Main Street. It is expected to be running sometime next week, Sprague said.