The town of Abrams will add another bell to its collection after the Oconto Falls School Board agreed to transfer ownership of the bell that was removed from the former United Methodist Church.
The bell was removed in March before the church was demolished to make room for a new entrance and more parking at Abrams Elementary School.
“The bell is just part of our history,” Abrams Town Chairman Joe Reinhardt told the School Board on Monday.
Board member Jan Stranz said the district had no reason to keep the bell.
“It would make sense, if there’s an interest and we could work with the town of Abrams to be reimbursed for setting that bell on the ground – it would be there to be appreciated by the community,” she said.
The district paid $1,019 to have the bell removed from the church, and Reinhardt was sure the town could raise the funds to cover that cost.
“I could throw in $500 from the town without blinking,” he said.
The School Board agreed the town may take possession of the bell as soon as possible and has until Sept. 1 to pay the district.
The district received 12 bids for the bell, ranging from $126.79 to $1,150. Three people each submitted two separate bids.
“One of the first to talk to the school district was a parishioner who wanted to buy it for scrap,” Superintendent Dave Polashek said.
Polashek recommended the bell be displayed in a way that protected it from the elements.
“It was an interior bell, on a beautiful framework made of wood. We should preserve that,” he said.
Reinhardt said the town will look to erect a structure to protect the bell from weather and vandalism. The town also owns another church bell, from the former St. Louis Catholic Church, that is now the Byng Community Theater. The bell is being cleaned and coated for preserving and will be placed on a concrete slab in a green space between the post office and the feed mill.
The Methodist church bell may be displayed with it.
Polashek said he would like to see “a classy thing, with a roof over it to preserve it to honor the history of that bell, which was probably put in there about 1900.”
A third bell, one from the original Abrams schoolhouse, spent time in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at a deer camp but now hangs in the elementary school.
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