By Erica Rocha
One of Lane’s most prominent features is the clock tower. It is featured on the senior class ring, on the school website, school memorabilia, and much more. However, for well over 15 years, the clock in the clock tower has been broken. This may change within a few weeks.
Each year, Lane administration and the senior class officers present two ideas for the senior class gift. This year, the two options were to fix the clock tower or to purchase recycling bins. The Class of 2014 voted on these two options online as a part of the senior notables poll and chose to renovate the clock tower. This means the movement part of the clock will be fixed.
Although many seniors did not vote, Assistant Principal, Mrs. Hanly, said that “[fixing the clock tower] was an overwhelming response versus the other choice.”
Despite the fact that the option to buy recycling bins was turned down, Environmental Club is planning to fundraise during Earth Day to buy a couple of bins. However, since a single recycling bin costs about $400, they are unsure of what the fundraiser may entail.
“They’re very expensive so that’s why I understand why we had to choose between fixing the clock tower and getting bins… but we’re working towards [getting bins],” said Marcin Gron, President of Environmental Club, Div. 461.
According to Dr. Dignam, the senior class gifts are usually a couple thousand dollars, and this year is not much different.
“I know that the clock tower’s going to cost a little bit more than [a thousand dollars] to fix,” Dignam said.
About $5 of the paid senior fees will directly go towards the reparation of the clock tower, a little under $5,000 being contributed by the senior class. The rest of the cost will need to be covered by the school.
“One thing that’s going to save us a ton of money is that Mr. Vessalo, who is an engineer and a physics teacher [at Lane], is going to fix it… he’s volunteering to do it,” Dignam said.
Vessalo has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a background of working on cars and a number of different machinery.
Before he was a teacher, he worked as a machinery breakdown consultant in which he inspected large industrial machinery and equipment to evaluate its reliability and identify any functional issues. He believes that fixing the clock has been important for many years.
“When I got to Lane and the clock tower hadn’t been working for a couple years, I decided to take on [the responsibility to fix it] and make it work,” Vessalo said. “No one else had approached it or decided to work on it so I just took it on myself to decide this is something that needs to be done because the clock tower is iconic of Lane.”
According to Vessalo, all the parts from the clock that are currently up today are the same parts that were put in when the tower was built. In order to fix the clock, he will replace the controller, movement (machinery that moves the clock), and a couple of other parts.
“What’s up there is over 80 years old,” Vessalo said. “It’s time to put in more modern technology there.”
Vessalo will primarily be working alone or with some of the building engineers at Lane once the weather improves. Since the replacement parts to the clock have arrived, he expects the clock to be in operating condition in a few weeks.
“I’m doing it because I love Lane Tech… it’s such a great place and I just want to continue to improve and make Lane a better place to be,” Vessalo said.
A plaque labeled “Clock Tower Renovation – Class of 2014” will most likely be placed on the wall between the third and fourth floor at staircase O once it is completed.
