A piece of Seymour history on display in Reddington for the last decade soon will be removed.
But members of the Reddington Rear Wheelers antique tractor club hope the 16.5-ton flywheel, which once generated electricity to power the Blish Milling Co., can find a new home.
The club formally relinquished its interest in the flywheel during a Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety meeting Thursday morning at city hall.
Roger Ruddick, representing the Reddington Rear Wheelers, said the club wants to see another organization get involved to help save the flywheel.
"We hope the city or tourism or the fair board or somebody would step forward and try to do something for it," he said.
The club entered into an agreement with the city in 2009 to borrow the wheel for a period of 25 years.
At that time, club members raised money to have the wheel moved from Freeman Municipal Airport to the property of club member Hubert Hazard at 1100 N. U.S. 31 in Reddington.
Before being discarded at the airport, the flywheel had been on display for years at the Farmers Club in downtown Seymour in the area that is now One Chamber Square next to the Greater Seymour Chamber of Commerce on South Chestnut Street.
After relocating the flywheel, the Reddington Rear Wheelers created a public display there where people could stop, learn about the history of the flywheel and take pictures of it.
Hazard passed away in 2012, and his daughter, Pam Obermeyer, wants the flywheel and display removed from her property. She requested the city take it back in August 2018.
Ruddick said the Obermeyers are now pushing the matter.
"The tractor club has discussed this for over a year," Ruddick said. "We have no options. We don’t know what to do. We have no place to move it. We don’t have the money to move it."
Seymour Clerk-Treasurer Fred Lewis said the city had received a letter from Becki Thompson and Melvin Bishop, wanted to propose moving the flywheel to Bishop’s property in Crothersville.
Ruddick said Thompson was supposed to attend Thursday’s meeting but did not.
"That’s fine. That sounds good to me," he said. "But whatever happens to it, Seymour has to approve it."