A clock that shows the time and temperature in downtown Palmerton is temporarily out of commission.

Fortunately, a new clock has been ordered that will once again make it fully operational, according to Joe Benett, property owner.

“We ordered a new time and temperature clock. It’s going to take 26 weeks,” Bennett said. “We’re about six weeks in.”

Bennett explained that the bulbs were burning out because the unit itself had varying currents going through it.

The clock is located at the Palmerton Pharmacy, a new independent drugstore that opened Feb. 20 at 330 Delaware Ave.

After nearly seven years of inactivity, the clock was fully operational.

Previously, the property had been the former BB & T Bank, which closed its branch office on July 20, 2021.

There had been metal plates over the time/temp, before the clock once again became fully operational.

Bennett previously said that the light bulbs are $10 apiece, and that there are 245 bulbs in the sign, an expense of nearly $2,500.

Resident Ruth Kindrew, who in 2016 started a petition on Change.org to the then BB&T Bank to save the clock, said at that time she was thrilled to hear the clock was being restored.

Kindrew started the petition after citing that the clock has been a part of the downtown for decades, and that many who come and go through town look to the clock for the right time and to see the temperature.

Bruce Maysmith, one of the petition signers at that time, said then he believed that the original time and temp was installed around the time his dad was hired at the former Palmerton Savings and Loan in 1968.

Maysmith said it was updated when the former Keystone Savings bought them out around 1973.