OXFORD - Lafayette County supervisors voted Monday to give yet another deadline to the Minnesota clockmaker who was contracted to restore the clockworks as part of the courthouse renovation that began in May 2007.

Lloyd Larish, owner of the Faribault, Minn.-based House of Clocks, took the clock's innards back to his shop three years ago and has cited ongoing health problems for a series of unmet deadlines.

His previous deadline expired, with no irony intended, on April Fool's Day.

If Larish has not arrived in Oxford and at least begun installing the repaired mechanism by Friday, county officials will look for someone else to take over the job.

The courthouse is central, both literally and figuratively, to downtown Oxford. It figured so heavily into William Faulkner's writing that the structure bears a bronze plaque bearing a quote from his novel "Requiem for a Nun": "But above all, the courthouse: the center, the focus, the hub ... ."

The clock is the only work left on the $3.5 million restoration, which originally was scheduled to be finished in 11 months.

Since Larish took the clock's innards back to his shop, however, its four stopped faces have borne four stuck times.

Lafayette County paid the clockmaker some $35,000 for the restoration. If he does not deliver, the county will likely pursue a reimbursement - by litigation, if necessary. But whether Larish can pay is undetermined.

"There's no way to tell at this point," said David O'Donnell, Board of Supervisors attorney. "If Mr. Larish finally appears and does the work, there's not going to be any issue."

Contact Errol Castens at (662) 281-1069 or errol.castens@djournal.com.