The Clock on the County Building

If you're like me, you've been looking at the clock on top of the County Building on Main Street, Oneonta, and wondering when it would be fixed so it will tell the right time. If you're as old as me, you've been wondering this for decades. Nothing like the most prominent landmark in the City leading us astray.

I got a letter from a constituent lately, about the clock, and so I had a reason to pursue the issue. I talked today with Doug Czerkies, head of the County Building Services Department; he's responsible for the building under the clock.

Doug had a surprise for me: although the County does, in fact, own the building – which used to be City Hall and the firehouse – the City still owns the clock! In fact, the clock has its own electric meter, billed to the City, and the City has an insurance policy just for the clock. That struck me as funny – I'm sure there is a reason that a clock needs an insurance policy (lightning strikes? Godzilla?) but that reason isn't perfectly obvious.

Doug says that the City is going to get to the clock sometime, and fix it so it tells the right time (on all four sides, I assume). There was a holdup on that project until recently, because no one could find the key to the clock tower. Apparently, Doug had one, and so soon we might get the time of day from the City clock on the County Building.