Cambridge Christmas Parade 2022
The Cambridge & Districts Pipe Band march past the Town Clock during the 2022 Christmas Parade. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Cambridge’s town clock will undergo “open heart surgery” costing more than $450,000 but the upside is once the work is done, operating and maintenance costs will reduce.
Property Services project manager Greg Boyle told Waipā District Council this week the frequency of servicing the clock had gone from six-monthly to almost twice a month.
Repairs had moved beyond “quick fixes,” he said.
It was a choice now between keyhole and open heart surgery.
“Cambridge residents are very passionate about the clock working accurately.
Council receives calls if the clock is out of time or does not chime correctly, or if the faces are not reading the same time.
“The town clock is part of the character of the town and a focal point for the community.”
It was back working again after stopping earlier this month but it appeared the chimes were now out of sequence, he said.
The clock, built in a tower on top of the Post Office in 1908, is a Category Two Historic Places structure and a category B heritage item in the council’s District Plan.
The tower was damaged in the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, so the clock was dismantled and moved from Victoria Street to a new tower in Jubilee Gardens, in front of the Town Hall. Mayoress Edith Priestley officially restarted it at 3pm on October 5, 1934.
Hand winding of the clock is done twice weekly requiring more than 200 turns of a hand crank and a hike up a long ladder between the tower floor and an elevated landing.
During Covid 19, the council stopped it at 12 o’clock in the early stages of alert level four lockdown until they could access its inner workings again.
Boyle said the tower was in poor condition and the clock mechanism “increasingly deteriorating”.
A sum of $250,000 was already in the Annual Plan budget for this financial year but Boyle said another $200,000 was needed to fix the tower, service the clock, the clock face and hands, automate the winding and pay architects’ fees.
There is a historic reserve fund of $53,000 tagged for clock repair; the $145,000 balance would be funded from a loan.
It costs more than $31,000 a year to maintain the clock. Under the proposal annual costs would reduce to $7000 a year. A service of the clock mechanism every 10 years is estimated to cost $25,000.
Work should begin, depending on contractor availability, later this year.
Waipā councillor Marcus Gower quipped that he hoped there were no more complaints about the $70,000 spent on upgrading the Kihikihi clock last year.
See: Watching time fly
