The Minneapolis City Hall's bell and clock tower, shut down for nine months during a recently completed renovation, was again briefly inoperable until midday Thursday and is back in working order in time for a special JFK-related chiming program.
The time on the four-sided clock had been showing various incorrect times since Wednesday because the power source was being replaced for the timepiece and its massive bells inside the tower, city officials said.
"Crews hope to have them turned back on Thursday afternoon," read a statement Wednesday evening from City Hall. And, promise kept.
This latest round of work was not related to the clock face restoration project, which was completed in late April, the statement added.
On the bell tower's schedule from 11 a.m. to noon Friday is a one-hour ringing in recognition of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the birth of President John F. Kennedy. He would have been 100 years old on May 29.
The tower's 15 bells range in weight from 300 to 7,000 pounds and are played from a console in the 4th Street rotunda of City Hall.
