TIME’S TOLL: The time hasn’t been right on the clock at the top of Bradford’s Old City Hall for quite some time. It’s either noon or midnight, according to the four clock faces, even though the bell tolls correctly on the hour.

Sara Andrews, executive director of the Bradford Office of Economic and Community Development, says the problem isn’t with the workings of the clock, but with the hands on the outside of the face. Over time, the wooden hands have deteriorated and now don’t turn properly.

The bigger obstacle, though, is that there’s no access to the hands from the inside of the clock tower, and it’s more than four stories up. 

“The problem is, we need an 85-foot lift,” Sara says, to get to the hands.

Help is on the way, through the American Refining Group, which has brought in a 135-foot lift to do some work of its own, and will bring it to Old City Hall to access the clock. 

That is supposed to happen today, weather permitting. 

“We’re fortunate that ARG has sort of adopted the clock,” Sara says. 

The lift will allow access to the hands, several of which will be taken down and then used as templates to make replacements, probably out of metal, she says.

This isn’t the first time ARG has helped get the clock back on track. 

Bob Esch, vice president of external affairs for ARG, says the company first took an interest in the clock before the dawn of the 21st century, when it had been in disrepair for years, along with the building it graced. 

“We thought, wouldn’t it be nice to get the clock working to ring in the new millennium,” Bob says.

ARG and several of its workers took on the project to get the clock ticking — and ringing — again. 

They succeeded, and in doing so, Bob believes, helped save Old City Hall itself.

Soon afterward, efforts began to restore the dilapidated building, which is now the focal point of Bradford’s downtown. 

If all goes well with reproducing the hands, and the lift is available to get them back up in the tower, the clock should be showing the correct time on all four of its faces in a matter of weeks.