Chanhassen wonders what to do with clocktower that can’t tell time

It can be hard to tell what time it is in Chanhassen.

The four clocks on the city’s east side tower show three different times, all wrong. Unless, by coincidence, you happen to stop by during one of the few moments when one is right.

“It’s a landmark that doesn’t tell time,” Parks & Recreation Director Jerry Ruegemer said in a council meeting earlier this month.

So now, between weightier discussions about rental policies and construction budgets, local leaders find themselves pondering some lighter questions: When do you wind down a worn-out local landmark? What would it cost to fix it? How many clocks does one town really need?

“You don’t need the clocks,” Council Member Jerry McDonald said during the meeting. “I’m not sure we need to tear it down either, but I don’t know what purpose it serves if you leave it.”

The 22-foot tower near the intersection of W. 78th Street and Great Plains Boulevard was built in the late 1980s, when developers and local officials began a push to revitalize the city’s downtown district.

As local leaders aimed to sell the public on the project, which also attracted a new shopping center and featured upgrades to sewer systems and power lines, the clocktower emerged as a frequent talking point. For a 1987 Minneapolis Star and Tribune story outlining the project, then-City Manager Don Ashworth paused to take a photo with a miniature replica of the timepiece.

On a recent afternoon, two of the clocks were stopped at 8:05. Another said it was almost 2:30, and another was stopped at 1:58. The actual time? 4:16 p.m.

Ruegemer said staff expect it would cost about $12,000 to repair the inner workings of all four clocks or closer to $68,000 to replace them.

“Older technology is getting harder and harder to fix,” he said.

Some people pass by the clocks without noticing anything is amiss, but others occasionally contact the mayor or council members to make a complaint.

Ruegemer told council members they don’t need to make an imminent decision about the clocktower’s fate, but he hoped to start the conversation.

Instead, he supported an idea floated by Council Member Haley Schubert, who suggested they could look at keeping the tower but replacing the broken clocks with paintings of the maple leaf featured prominently on the city seal.

That, Schubert said, might allow the city to “keep a little bit of history there but modernize it a bit as well.”

“I’m sentimental and I don’t want to see it torn down completely,” she said.