Item 8AAGENDA ITEM # 8A
JUNE 11, 2007
CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH
CITY COMMISSION MEETING
STAFF REPORT
AGENDA ITEM: 5 Points Time -Tide Clock
SUBMITTED BY: Rick Carper, P.E., Public Works Director
DATE: May 31 2007
BACKGROUND: Purchase of the clock at 5 Points was paid for with funds raised by
resident donations. One of the involved residents (the City's beach renourishment
consultant) recommended the inclusion of a tide feature in the clock and did the
necessary research and liaison with Fancy Street Clock Co. for this modification to be
included with the clock. Recently there have been questions concerning noted
inaccurate times on the clock. In order to provide both a time and a tide function, a
substitute clock movement by Klockit, Inc. was installed. This movement is a single AA
lithium battery powered drive for both the time and tide function. Because of the size
and environmental exposure, etc., of this experimental application, the combined
movement is not meeting the requirement for accurate time and tide. The manufacturer
of this movement does not manufacture either a stronger movement or the capability to
add the atomic update (accuracy) feature found on Fancy Street Clock Co. standard
movements.
The existing movements appear to be adequate to run the tide indicators alone.
Inaccuracies are minor enough to be un-noticeable and require infrequent adjustment,
so long as the lithium batteries are replaced.
The City and interested Citizens have asked Fancy Street Clock Co. to investigate
several upgrades to the existing clock, such as modifying the tide hand to make it
easier to differentiate from the time hands from a distance and providing an AC power
source to the movement. However, even if a way is found to make the tide-hand more
transparent, it is likely that the existing clock movement would NOT be able to maintain
adequately reliable time. All of the available options, then, require that each clock face
be EITHER time OR tide only.
Fancy Street Clocks has offered several options, absorbing the cost of replacements,
per our original understanding, given the experimental nature of the project:
a) Do nothing -Public Works staff is manually resetting time on average twice per week
requiring approximately 2 man-hours per week.
June 11"' Regular Meeting
AGENDA ITEM # 8A
)LINE 1 ] , 2007
b) Time only on both faces: Replace both clock-face movements with their standard
high-quality Swiss movements (time only), and change the faces to read time only.
c) One time, one tide: Replace one face with high-quality Swiss movement and change
the face to time only (remove tide); remove the hour/minute hands on the other face,
retain tide hand, change the face to tide only.
d) Tide only on both faces: Change both faces to tide only (retain existing movements,
remove time hands).
e) Four Way: Change to a four-face clock; with two showing time (high-quality Swiss
movement) and two showing tide (Klockit battery powered drive). This would cost extra:
Fancy Street Clocks would credit the full cost of our existing 2-face clock against the 4-
face, but the net additional cost will be more than $4,800 dollars.
BUDGET: There is no existing budget for clock replacement or modification. Options
a) through d) would be at no cost to the City. A budget modification will be
required if Option 4 is chosen.
RECOMMENDATION: Commission direction to Staff for execution of preferred
option.
REVIEWED BY CITY MANAGER:
June 11"' Regular Meeting