Save the clocktower: Historic Sacramento City Hall building's clock is broken
SACRAMENTO — There's a call in downtown Sacramento to "save the clocktower." It's a memorable line from the "Back to the Future" movie, but now this drama is playing out in real life at Sacramento City Hall.
Time stands still at one of Sacramento's most historic buildings. The original city hall is more than a century old and the clock atop the five-story tower seems stuck in the past.
Richard Miller noticed the clock wasn't keeping the correct time months ago.
"Every time I drove by, I'd look at it and it never changed," he said.
The hour and minute hands no longer move and the time shown on the four faces of the clocktower are not even the same.
At 4 p.m., the clock was showing it was 10:31 on the south side and 1:28 on the north.
Miller said he reached out to the city asking for it to be fixed.
"It became an eyesore to me because here we've got a beautiful architectural design with a beautiful clock and I thought it was time to get it restored," he said.
The clocktower sits center stage during the annual Concerts in the Park summer music series and other community events held across the street in Ceasar Chavez Plaza.
We asked the city a month ago why the clock wasn't working. A spokesperson said it just needed to be reset.
Now, in a statement, the city said:
"We have since discovered that some parts need to be replaced. We've ordered the necessary parts and are waiting for them to arrive."
Miller said if the city won't fix it, he's willing to start a fundraising campaign to save Sacramento's clocktower.
"I want our community to have the right time," Miller said.
Right now there's no timeline for when the clock will be fixed. The city says once the clocktower parts are in, they will work on the repairs.