cheap prednisone On Friday December 8, 2023, a team of four volunteers donated about 24 labor hours of work on maintenance to the bell tower. Projects included removal of old (not in use) wiring, removal of old disconnected speakers, replacement of old hardware cloth covering the louvered vent openings, and maintenance on the bell including rope replacement.

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Old abandoned wiring that had been left in place was limiting the ability to move around in both the lower landing (a floor above the ceiling of the bell tower foyer) and the bell room above the lower landing was removed. Years of accumulated dust was then cleaned up. A piece of conduit going into the west wall remains in place awaiting a hack saw or equivalent for removal.

The bell room had four 24” horn type speakers that nearly prohibited access let alone movement (behind either side of bell in picture). The north and so nuth speakers were held in place with two square headed lag bolts each to the wooden frame supporting the bell. The east and west speakers were held in place with two hex headed carriage bolts with hex nuts each through the wooden frame supporting the bell. All four speakers were removed intact. The next problem was to force the speakers through the bell frame to get them to the hatch under the bell to pass them down to the lower landing hatch then into the foyer and outside.

With the speakers out of the way the old rusted ¼” hardware cloth installed with nails and patched (poorly) with ½” hardware cloth installed with roofing nails was removed. New 1/8” galvanized hardware cloth was then installed covering the vent louvers with a pneumatic stapler using galvanized staples with a 1” crown and 1 ¼” long.

Maintenance to the wooden frame of the bell included the installation of a stainless steel pulley mounted on a board over the deep groove in the frame caused by well over a century of bell ringing. The saddles holding the bell pinions were sprayed with WD-40 and greased with white lithium grease. The well-worn bell rope was replaced with a new heavier duty rope. The bell room floor was covered with upwards of 2” of compacted dust and debris which we were not prepared to remove. The accumulation will need to be removed at a later date with scrapers, shovels and 5-Gallon buckets.

Access to the lower landing from the foyer requires a 10’ to 14’ extension ladder extended into the lower landing hatch (a 16’ extension ladder is too long to stand up under that hatch). There is a permanent built in ladder from the lower landing to the bell room. The ladder is solid but very steep and the steps seem far apart. Speakers, old hardware cloth and other debris was staged on the front ramp and removed on Saturday.

Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped with this project: Adam Bowman, Wes Patrick, Lynn Burton, and Annie Johson. All Materials for this project were donated.  

P.S. While we were there, a new clock was installed in the Fellowship Hall replacing the clock that was gaining about 2 hours per week and had no adjustments to slow it down. 

by Lynn Burton