photo by: Douglas County

Pictured from left are Douglas County Buildings and Maintenance Director Jimmy Wilkins, Eudora machinist Wayne Neis and Capt. Jason Grems of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Neis was able to create a bronze gear that fixed the historic Douglas County Courthouse clock, and the county recognized his efforts this week.

When the Douglas County Courthouse’s 117-year-old clock stopped ticking in August, Douglas County Buildings and Maintenance Director Jimmy Wilkins didn’t think it would ever get fixed.

That’s because the parts to fix it no longer existed. But the clock only ended up stuck for a matter of months. A chain of communication about who might be able to tackle the project eventually led Wilkins to Eudora machinist Wayne Neis, whom the county credited this week with fixing the clock and getting it moving again on Nov. 28.

photo by: Douglas County

The replaced gear in the Douglas County Courthouse clock is pictured at center.

Neis is a longtime friend of Capt. Jason Grems with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, who also owns a welding shop. Wilkins originally connected with Grems to look over the project, but Grems decided it was out of his league and reached out to Neis. The “impossible” project wasn’t an impossible one for Neis; he created not only one bronze gear that worked as a replacement part but also two gears plus a template to make even more as needed. Each gear is expected to last for at least 100 years, the county reported.

photo by: Douglas County

Eudora machinist Wayne Neis, left, takes a photo of the clock inside the Douglas County Courthouse clocktower. Pictured at right is Capt. Jason Grems of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Neis’ longtime friend.

“The steps that he had to go through to even re-establish the original size and exact parameters of the old gears are mind-boggling,” Wilkins said in a release from the county.

That process involved a lot of math, Grems added. It meant not just cutting teeth for the gear but making sure they were cut at a certain depth, pitch and dent. It had to be very precise.

Neis, for his part, was worried the tool he used to create the gears wouldn’t hold long enough to make just one gear, let alone two, but it did. Neis did the work voluntarily and told the county he was happy to help. He was given a tour of the Courthouse clock tower earlier this week as thanks for his help.

“It’s pretty neat,” Grems added in the release. “We’re good for 200 years.”