From staff reports

PARKERSBURG — A tractor displayed for decades in City Park is back in its familiar parking space.

The 1908 Colean steam tractor donated to the city in 1972 by local businessman and philanthropist Spencer Creel returned to the park Tuesday after being restored and repainted by American Star Paintings & Coatings in Marietta.

The tractor was returned to the same spot but placed “on a newly constructed elevated pad that was built to withstand the roughly 9-ton weight of the machine,” Mayor Tom Joyce said.

The restoration was part of a $93,000 contract the City of Parkersburg had with American Star to do the work on the tractor and repaint a deck gun displayed with other military memorials in the park. The work was paid for with a $55,000 residual balance from a previously secured historic preservation grant and money from the city’s capital reserve fund, Joyce previously said.