At a recent Greene County Board of Supervisors meeting, a report was compiled by the Verdin Company and the Bell Tower Community Foundation of the Mahanay Bell Tower.

Tim Verdin, production manager of Verdin Company, had an inspection report done on the Mahanay Bell Tower.  His report showed that since the 14 bells sit on top of the tower, that they are exposed to all the weather elements.

For this reason, they found that the frames that the bells are attached to are corroding and rotting away but that the bells themselves are in good shape because they are made out of bronze.  The steel parts of the frames have noticeable rust to them.

As for the bells, there are 14 installed, but only four are currently functioning.  The biggest bell that is suppose to be used for each top of the hour chime isn’t working due to a bad striker.  The music that is played following the top of the hour chime are electronic bells projected from speakers.

Verdin gave two possible solutions.  He states that the immediate fix is to combine the strikers in a systematic way to fit each individual bell on site.  The other solution was the completely replace the current bell frames and restructure the tower to fit all 48 bells as they get purchased over time.

Carole Custer, president of the Bell Tower Community Foundation says there are 15 bells in the courthouse waiting to be installed with the other 14 and she would like to purchase the final 19 bells.

She states she would like to have a community fundraising campaign to purchase the rest of the bells.

Currently, the county supervisors are reviewing the assessment and looking to see if the tower can support the extra weight of 48 bells in the future.