County clock tower restoration progressing

As a part of the Jasper County Courthouse clock tower restoration, four louvers were purchased for installation to allow sound to be emitted from the top of the structure. The board of supervisors approved the $4,587 purchase from Forman Ford for the louvers which will replace four windows currently in the clock tower.

“In the clock restoration process, we are going to put the bell back up top and it is going to ring,” county maintenance director Adam Sparks said. “Currently, we have a room enclosed with windows, it has nowhere for the pressure or the bell sound to get out right now. What we are going to do is take one window out on each side and add louvers so when the bell is struck it can reach outside.”

A louver is a window blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain and direct sunshine. Sparks said he did not know if louvers were in the original makeup of the building when the bell was functioning but after it was taken down, eight windows were placed in the tower.

“Best case scenario, we are going to have four spare windows when and if the other four start to go bad,” Sparks said.

Supervisor Joe Brock asked if the louvers would be in line with the historical requirements for the clock tower. The county is currently working with the State Historical Society of Iowa which awarded a $44,500 grant to the county for the work. Sparks said the louvers were OK, but he has been working through issues with the society in relation to the glass to be used for the clock.

“Ideally and historically you want to use everything that you can but when you have 100 year old glass and we only have a little less than half the glass of all of the pieces, when you put old glass up there and you try to put new glass or even another style of new glass up there, it looks like night and day,” Sparks said. “We have found that nobody, as of yet, can match the glass that was up there.”

To an outside observer who knew nothing about clock, it would be very noticeable to have the two different types of glass on the clock face, Sparks said. In his opinion, he would rather display the glass in another way and put uniform glass on the clocks.

“Do you feel the historical people are working well with you on the glass?” Brock asked.

Sparks said he knows the historians have a job to do and are working through their steps, but he hopes they will come around to view the courthouse in a more personal way like county employees and citizens do.

“This courthouse to them doesn’t mean really a lot like it does any of us. They are looking at just the historical aspect of it and the rules and the steps to get there, not necessarily how you or I feel about this place,” Sparks said. “We just have to get them to see that side of it. If this was their building that they worked in every day and their historical marker in the center of their town, they would think differently about it.”

Other than the issues revolving around the glass, Sparks said the clock is about 90 percent complete.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com