With Gorham’s village clock no longer ticking, a committee will likely recommend a course of action next month to the Town Council about what to do about it and how to pay for it.

The town-owned clock sits high above the street in the tower of the First Parish Church at the corner of School and Church streets. The village clock could be restored to not only keep accurate time but once again toll the church bell and restoration might even allow townspeople to easily see how the clock works.

“It’s an asset that belongs to the community and is enjoyed by the community,” said Burleigh Loveitt, chairman of the town council.

The clock hasn’t kept time for months. Loveitt plans to name a committee to study a solution and he expects it would have a report for the Town Council in October. The clock cost $500 brand new. A total restoration project could cost $60,000, Loveitt said. He added that one of the questions is whether to fund restoration through donations or by tax money.

An expert said the clock dates to about 1860. Rick Balzer of Balzer Family Clock Works in Freeport said it was never electrified. It has original paint and the clock is remarkable, he said. “The word is priceless,” Balzer said when asked the clock’s worth today. “How do you put a price on it?”

Although Balzer said the clock is in “pretty darn good shape,” the clock has stopped. The Gorham town council has authorized Loveitt to develop a proposal for repairing and maintaining the clock.

The town owns the clock and its hands, but it’s located in the tower of the First Parish Church, which owns the four faces of the clock. Balzer has estimated repairs of the clock at $38,050.

He said the clock needs to be cleaned and some small gears, which he called pinions, need to be replaced because of wear. The years of exposure to humidity in the tower took its toll on the old clock. The elements rusted and pitted some of its steel parts, but the brass parts are all right. Restoration would require its works to be removed from the church tower.

Balzer recommends reinstalling the clock to an environmentally friendly spot inside the church. Rev. David Butler of the First Parish Church told the council last summer that church hierarchy favored relocating the clockworks inside the church, 85 feet below its present place in the tower.

As part of a restoration, Balzer said he could make and donate the extra components needed to run a shaft up to the clock dials in the tower. He said the church or the town would have to prepare the site, drilling holes, mounting eyelets for pulleys and pay to encase the clockworks inside the church.

If membership approved, Butler said the church would construct a glass case for the works and place it where townspeople could easily view it. “It’s a piece of priceless, historical antiquity,” Butler said. “It’s a rare thing.”

The clock might also be reconnected to the church’s Paul Revere bell. The mechanism that tolled the bell was removed about 25 years ago following complaints from neighbors. Human hands have rung the bell in recent times, summonsing parishioners to church services.

Balzer, who looked at the clock in May, said parts that strike the bell are on the floor in the tower. He said it could be attached to once again toll the hour, but he could rig it so it wouldn’t activate in nighttime hours.

Lynn McInnis of State Street lives nearby and said the tolling would “absolutely” add charm to the village. “I’d love to hear it chime,” she said.

Ruth Ayers of School Street, a neighbor who lives beside the church, is undecided on whether the bell should toll each hour. She said the bell has a nice sound but wondered how many times it would ring.

Ayers thought the cost of the clock restoration sounded high but said they’ve enjoyed seeing it in the church tower over the years. “The clock should stay even if it’s not working,” she said.

Chuck Barr of Church Street lives nearby but said it wouldn’t bother him if the clock rang the church bell during night time hours. “It can ring all night long on the hour,” Barr said.

Balzer described the clock as gravity, weight-driven. It’s powered by a box of bricks that travels inside a shaft. Over the years, someone has trudged up tower stairs to wind the clock by hand with a crank. Balzer said that gravity clocks were first built in Europe in the 1300s, and many are still running.

Balzer’s wife, Linda, said the Gorham clock is ready for restoration, but she said the clock had good care in Gorham over the years. “The old timers kept it alive,” she said.

Butler, who spoke at a Town Council meeting in the early summer, said the clock hasn’t been worked on since the 1930s. He said it needed to be fully restored with worn parts replaced. “The clock is a beautiful object,” he said.

Loveitt asked Butler at that meeting to be prepared to make future speeches. “We’ll wind the reverend up again,” Loveitt said.

Loveitt said his wife, Deborah Loveitt, who is a trustee at the church, has volunteered to serve on the committee, which will review restoration. “She either volunteered or was conscripted,” he said.

Loveitt said the committee would also include Gorham Public Works Director Bob Burns along with members of the Gorham Historical Society and the public.

Toppan Robie, a leading Gorham citizen in the 1800s, gave the clock to the town.

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Gorham’s village clock in the tower of the First Parish Church.

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