Replacing the village clock

The new Municipal Building clock

From 27east, by Stephen J. Kotz:

At about 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning, when Sag Harbor’s Main Street was still largely deserted, a crew with a bucket truck from Leo’s Electric pulled up to the Sag Harbor Municipal Building.

A short time later, a box truck arrived, and workers pulled out a new clock for the façade of the building.

The old clock, which had been in place for years, finally gave up the ghost last year. At the request of Mayor Tom Gardella, the Sag Harbor Partnership, which underwrites good causes, large and small, throughout the village, stepped in to buy a new one.

An exact replica could not be found, but the Electric Time Company built a suitable replacement.

Raising the approximately $5,500 to replace the clock was “one of the nicest, easiest projects we ever did,” said Susan Mead, the Partnership’s co-president, with Jayne Young. “In just a matter of days, we raised the money.”

Mead praised Deputy Superintendent of Public Works Michael Cohen for his work getting the clock ordered to the exact specifications required.

Anthony Leo said his family’s company, which his parents, Charles and Kathleen Leo, started in 1980, had donated its time to install the new clock. “You have to give back to the town that has given so much to you,” he said, as he watched his crew install the new clock in the center of the building between the second and third floors.

It took the better part of two hours for the team to complete the job, which involved centering the clock precisely, drilling through the brick exterior to properly anchor the timepiece, and some necessary rewiring.

Among a handful of onlookers was Gardella, who said he was glad to put one more task behind him.

“I told them we needed to replace the clock,” the mayor said of the Partnership, “and they went right to work.” Thanks to the donated services of Leo’s Electric, “the project didn’t cost the taxpayers anything,” he added.

The mayor said small projects like replacing the clock mattered because they helped the village retain its charm despite the changes going on all around it.

“These things are important to people,” he said. “And they are important to me.”