A historic clock is on display again outside Mission City Hall after years of damage and disrepair.

One man volunteered his time to fix it, and restore a piece of Mission's history.

“One day, I noticed it was gone, and I thought, ‘well we had had a storm and it probably blew over or something,’” Ned Sheats said. “And I didn't think much about it until three or four years went by and it never came back.”

As the years went by, Sheats said his curiosity only grew. Instead of forgetting about it, he went looking for answers. He learned the clock and the base that held it up were damaged by natural disasters.

The Mission Historical Museum ended up taking the clock down and storing it in the basement.

Sheats said he wanted to change that.

“I contacted the museum and said, ‘you know, since I've moved here, Mission has been very good to me. So I would like to see about repairing the clock and what it would take,’” Sheats said.

Using his own money and time, Sheats worked on that restoration.

“I worked on it, maybe as much as 400 hours because as I got further into the clock, I found there were other problems that I had not noticed to begin with,” Sheats said.

Sheats worked to carefully put every piece back together.

“[I have] no experience in clocks. I am a certified electronic technician and the clock does have electrical components,” Sheats said. “It was a challenge and I made some other acquaintances with weekly phone calls to Cincinnati, Ohio, where the clock was built.”

After hundreds of hours of work, the clock is now back where it belongs, serving as a symbol of community pride and history.

Despite all the work, Sheats said he hasn’t seen the clock installed. But that will change soon.

Watch the video above for the full story.