Wednesday was a day that was long coming and won’t be forgotten by the dozens of people who passed by the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower.
Nine bells were taken down from the top of the bell tower where they’ve hung, without strikers, for 50 years. Those bells, and another 14 that were purchased since construction of the bell tower was completed in 1966 and have been on display in the courthouse, were loaded for a trip to Ohio. There they’ll be fitted with strikers.
Early next spring those 23 bells and 18 newly-cast bells will be hung atop the bell tower in a process similar to what was done Wednesday. Then, the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower will finally boast a full carillon. It will be one of only three full carillons in Iowa, and the only one on which the bells are exposed and easily visible from afar.
A crew from the Verdin Company of Cincinnati, started the morning hauling the previously purchased bells from the courthouse to a large wooden crate on a flatbed trailer. The bells will not only be retrofitted with strikers, but also inscriptions will be added noting the person or family who donated the bell.
As the Verdin crew did that, crane operators from Champion Crane Service Inc of Des Moines set up on the west side of the bell tower a crane large enough to reach 168 feet to the top of the tower.
The first bell was lowered to the trailer at about 10:15. It took until nearly 1 pm to get the last of the nine bells down from the tower. Two men worked at the top, attaching each bell to the crane’s hook and line before unbolting it from its bracket.
As the job progressed, a breeze got stiffer, providing a little bit of cooling on a day that was unseasonably hot and humid.
Carole Custer, president of the Bell Tower Community Foundation, was there as the bells were lowered. Custer and the Foundation board have worked diligently to secure funding needed to complete the full carillon. “This is an exciting and historic day for the bell tower, Jefferson, and Greene County,” she said. “This is the start of something really big.”
She also credited the team effort that was needed to amass the nearly $400,000 needed, and she thanked donors, those in the past and those who rose to the more recent challenge to complete the tower as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
