On Sunset/Swarthmore Corner; Clock Will Honor Arnie Wishnick
By JAMES GAGE – Special to Circling the News
Palisades PRIDE President John Padden and PRIDE Board Member Sam Rubin provided information about a proposed community “town clock” to be located on US Bank property, corner of Sunset and Swarthmore, at the August 22 Community Council meeting.
Palisades PRIDE, a beautification non-profit that has improved medians, supplied benches and enhanced aesthetics around town, has been working for years to erect a town clock in the Village.
“The original site was going to be on Swarthmore, but that’s no longer a feasible site,” Padden told the PPCC. The street has basically been swallowed up by Caruso’s Palisades Village.
“My fellow colleague Sam Rubin has been working on this pet project for years. Tonight, we’re picking it back up. There’s still a lot of development to do and we’re still talking to the City, but we wanted to give you an idea of what we’re working on.”
Padden, a realtor with Keller Williams, shared renderings of the clock, showing a traditional, four-dial Washington town clock in black and gold.
“I believe that the opportunity is finally upon us,” said Rubin at the meeting. “This clock will include a tribute to the late Arnie Wishnick [the 25-year executive director of the Chamber of Commerce]. The property owner who controls the US Bank site granted us authorization to use their corner to house this clock… It’s a slam dunk.”
The clock would be calibrated by satellite and include some sort of tribute to Wishnick, a community icon, though the exact design has yet to be determined.
“I think it’s a good idea and we hope to work together on it with the community,” Rubin said.
Padden later told Circling the News that the estimated cost for the clock is $10,000 to $15,000, “plus unknown soft costs.” He added that “a portion has already been raised, and there would be no maintenance costs “other than annual insurance.”
I think it would be a lovely memorial to Arnie to add something beautiful and practical to the Palisades, pretty much like Arnie did.
That is one ugly clock — straight out of the dark, damp and foggy streets of London in the late 1800s. Creepy! Arnie deserves better.
Can we design something that also displays the temperature?
Instead of duplicating the clock at the other end of the block with a pole in the sky, please consider a low Outdoor LED Programmable Electronic monument digital time/temperature display. It would replace the time/temp digital display we previously had at a bank nearby. This low display (with no advertising!) could be landscaped with petunias or other seasonal foliage displays. It would anchor the corner and tie into the Village Green, thus pulling out Village together.
This is wonderful! I like the placement, the look, the memorial to Arnie Wishnick and what a convenience for those of us who walk the Palisades…………good job! P.R.I.D.E.