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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1973-06-28, Page 115WELL OPENING — The men above aren't too concerned about the rather large leak from the side of th's building. What they are in fact observing is the opening of the Moodie Well, east of Exeter in 1949. From the left the men are B. W. Tuckey, reeve in 1948; L. J. Penhale, chairman of the PUC; H. C. Rivers, commissioner of the PUC; and A. J. Sweitzer, reeve, 1949. (photo by Doerr) .111, Section 1, Page 27 THE EXETER TIMES-ADVOCATE JUNE 28, 1973 History of PUC a. — Continued from page 26 $20,000. debenture issue to cover the cost of the necessary plant to distribute electric power. When the vote was held on the by- law on July 22, 1915, 70 percent of the eligible voters went to the polls and there were only seven dissenting votes in the unusually "quiet election". Council passed the By-Law in August and im- mediately signed the agreement *with Ontario Hydro. Once the agreement was signed erection of Exeter's new poles and so on began in the fall, Street lighting was discussed and it was decided that 176 street lights would be put up; this would cost $2,640 per year for the hydro power. This compared with the 55 street lights in use in 1915, of which 36 were the carbon arc type and 19 incandescent; in 1915 the village had paid the Electric Company $1,550 for power for these lights. There was some interest in ornamental standards with underground cable in the business section from Anne Street to Sanders Street. In November 1915 Dr. J, W. Browning, J. G. Jones and thirty other merchants petitioned eCouncil to put this type of street light and standard up in the business section, Council, on a motion by Hind and Harton refused to grant the petitioners wishes. As a result overhead wiring, wooden poles, with somewhat ornamental fixtures went up on Main Street. Some of these ornamental iron fixtures can still be seen on some of the back streets of the town. Sometime in 1916 the Ontario Hydro high voltage lines reached Exeter from St. Marys. The "step-down station" was built and hydro came to Exeter. Stores, hotels, houses and so on were wired for hydro if they had not already been customers of the electric company. "King" Davis and other electricians had a busy time. The number of customers Alp. climbed until by 1920 it is reported that there were somewhere between 300 and 400 customers in the village. The First Years of the Commission With hydro in Exeter, Council under advisement from the Ontario Hydro Commission undertook to set up a public utilities commission. Until this was set up the Fire, Water and Light Committee of Council was the responsible body; this meant, of course, that Council dealt directly with Ontario Hydro, So, as was stated earlier in 1917 the Exeter Public Utilities Commission was established and Council turned over respon- sibility for both._ water and electricity to the commission. The men. that Council periodically engaged to run the small waterworks were hen- ceforth engaged by the Com- mission, Herman W. Doerr, an electrician, had sometime before 1917 been engaged by Council and in 1917 he became the manager of the waterworks and hydro ser- vice for the commission; his salary at this time was $70.00 per month, The early -years of the Com- mission did not see any great expansion of the waterworks system. The primary job in this department was maintenance of the existing system and minor periodic extensions. But Exeter did not expand much at this time so little additional main was necessary. In the hydro depart- * ment the commission's crew which varied in size and in members constructed the lines and so on to the various parts of the town. Hydro power was delivered, for example, to the canning factory and to the other peripheral areas of the village. Not only did the Commission administer Exeter but also un- dertook in its first couple of years to administer the hydro facilities in Dashwood, Zurich and in 1923 the immediate rural area. This rural system had 130 customers. Once a month H. W. Doerr and, when he was hired in 1921, R. E. Russell would go to Dashwood and Zurich to read meters, render accounts, do the bookkeeping and make in- stallations. The Commission met in the Library in its earliest years since it did not have any building under its jurisdiction. Electric and water accounts could be paid at the office of T. G. Creech the express agent. Mr. Creech received some small remuneration for this service. A few years later the building now occupied by C. Fairbairn on Main Street served as the Com- mission's office and shop. The Waterworks and Hydro depart- ment payroll in the 1920's and early 1930's included from time to time various part time or casual labourers as well as the small permanent staff, Such names as R, E. Russell, W. Lutman, who as far as the writer knows was the only employee in the history of electricity in Exeter to die on the job by electrocution, E. "King" Davis, A. Kernick, B, Cun- ningham, John Norry, Thomas Welsh, James Parsons, Leo Hennessey, Harry Lewis, Elmer Reeder, Archie Ireland, Dewey Ward, Ed Sims, C. B. Carruthers and many others, Rosa Dearing who was office clerk was the only female employee prior to the mid 1930's. As has been mentioned from 1917 to 1934 the Commission did not undertake any major waterworks construction but in the 1930's it was becoming ap- parent that something had to be undertaken by way of a potable water supply. In 1934 the Chamber of Commerce petitioned the Village Council to undertake an examination of the feasibility of installing a potable, domestic water system. Evidently men like L. J. Penhale manager of the canning factory, which was very interested in water supply, Albert Traquair, and other prominent citizens were strongly urging provision of a domestic water supply. Many . people, however, had no interest in the scheme, since they had good wells. In March 1934 "an informal meeting of a number of representative ratepayers was held in the Exeter Library and the following resolu- tion as adopted on a motion by B.W.F. Beavers and B. M. Francis: that this meeting request the Municipal Council to take the necessary steps to secure available information as to the cost of installing a suitable system of drinking water for the. Village of Exeter". The Council referred this to the Commission. The Commission engaged the services of D. H. Fleming a Toronto consultant. The Council agreed to hold a vote on the debenture by-law for the waterworks extension and im- provement. This vote went 246 for and 96 against. The situation regarding water in Exeter at this time was one of increasing seriousness. Individual wells upon which people depended for their drinking water were becoming polluted from weeping tile, In 1936 land and springs on the farm of Mr. Garnet Frayne were obtained and rights of way for a 6 inch pipe line to the old pump house at the river also were obtained through the properties involved which were owned by Messers Frayne, Yellow and Dow. A reservoirwas built near the old pumphouse with a capacity of 250,000 IG to receive the water from the springs where a motor and pump were installed to pump the water to the reser- voir. The interior of the old water tower was also cleaned and painted. In 1937 the old pum- phouse at the river was sold and removed and the present pum- phouse constructed. In March 1937 the Commission set rates as follows: Private Dwellings one or more taps $6.00, with bath $3.00; with toilet $3.00; public garages washing cars $25.00; public garages not. washing cars $12.00; bakeshops $9.00; dentist office $9.00; doctor's office $9.00; barber shop $9.00; theatres with toilets $15.00; butcher shop $9.00; stores $9.00; creamery $75.00; school $100.00; Huron Lumber Co. $25.00; flax mill $20.00; chopping mill $25.00; V. Cann $200.00; green house $20.00; hotel $60.00; bowling green $35.00; arena $50:00; CNR $250.00; Canadian Canners $350.00; hydrant $40.00; tank of water "cash" $1.00. The Period of Modernization The period from 1940 to the present is of sufficiently recent date and the records are more readily obtainable so that the remainder of this paper will be divided into two sections. The waterworks department's developments will be traced bridfly through to the present and the hydro department developments will be traced separately rather than combine the two as has been done up to this point. The waterworks developments will be dealt with first. As in- dicated previously by 1940 the waterworks consisted of the domestic system and the river supply. There were two sources of domestic water being tapped, that is, the Abbott Well on Marlborough Street and the springs on the Frayne farm. This water was collected at the reservoir near the dam and pumped to the system. The river supply was used only by the Canadian Canners for cooling purposes at this time. In 1939 the Commission was serving 308 domestic customers, 66 com- mercial customers and 5 in- dustrial customers for water. By 1946 these figures were 531, 85, and 4 respectively. Ten years later in 1956 there wee 890 domestic customers, 135 com- mercial and 8 industrial. The present figures are ap- proximately 1,100, 137, and 13, During the war years almost no water main extension or im- provement to the waterworks was undertaken. The period 1945 to 1950, however, saw several important developments. During this time a third well, namely the Kestle Well just south of town was brought in in 1945. This well was never used very extensively since poor tests were obtained and its Use was discontinued within a few years. In 1949 a major addition to the water system was completed. In that year the Moodie Well began to contribute water to the village supply. The cost of the 50 foot well, the three miles of six inch main from the well to the village system and other works cost $48,000. In 1960 the Commission added a fourth well when it sank the Hicks Well primarily as a stand-by or extra supply of water for dry periods. The major waterworks job undertaken by the Commission during the post war period was, of course, the sharing and par- ticipation in the Morrison Dam project. For some years prior to 1958 when the dam was com- pleted there had been con- siderable concern over the shortage of water in Exeter. In 1954 the Canadian Canners, Council, and the Commission discussed the water supply problem. The Canning Factory had for years drawn water from the local dam; this had been done using a pump and engine which were set up at the dam. The water was carried to the factory in an above ground pipe. All of this equipment including the pipe were there only during the canning season. In 1955 the Commission built an 8 inch cast iron main from the local dam to the Canadian Canners plant. The pump, engine and small- chlorinator were set up tem- porarily at the dam. 1955 was the first year that the Commission sold river water to the Canadian Canners. Before that the Canning factory had apparently operated the system. In 1955 the Com- mission sold 4 million Imperial Gallons of river water to the Canning factory. But, as indicated the Canadian Canners considered that the potential supply in the local dam was inadequate and felt the town and the commission should do something to relieve this shor- tage, There was considerable discussion in 1954 and 1955 that the town and the Canadian Canners had some kind of agreement that if a guaranteed water supply were forthcoming the Company would undertake expansion of the Exeter plant. However, in 1955 Mayor R. E. Pooley said that "the town never had a written agreement with the company — it was a verbal un- derstanding that if the Town secured an adequate water supply a sizeable addition would be erected" at the local plant. The mayor went on to say that a company official had assured the town that the company would still expand the factory if the supply of water from the proposed dam materialized. At the same meeting Reeve MacKenzie said that the purchase of Canadian Canners by the California Packing Company "makes our obligation to supply water even larger than before." The Morrison Dam project was quite a controversial issue at the time. The Ausable Authority under whose jurisdiction the dam would be built was enthusiastic about the idea since a dam somewhere in this area had been recommended in the 1949 Authority report. Andrew Dixon, John Morrison and other members of the Authority urged its construction since it would provide a reservoir to store water for the low flow period and help control spring run off; it would also provide a recreational area of some merit. The Council and the Commission supported the dam's construction for other reasons; both bodies wished to secure the water supply that would be available for the Canning factory since it represented Exeter's principal industrial activity. The Municipal 'Board ruled shortly after that no vote was- required and the Council, Commission and the Authority which was the actual agency responsible for undertaking the work proceeded with the plans. The details, problems, price changes, tendering problems and so on occupied considerable time and cannot be gone into here. It is enough for the purposes of this article to say that finally in 1957 the contract was awarded to the Pearce Construction Company of Hagersville who had submitted the lowest tender of $168,000; there were three other bids, considerably higher: The dam itself was finished in 1958 and named the John A. Morrison Dam in honour of the Authority Chairman. The dam provided a storage capacity of fifty million gallons and when the stop logs were added an additional fifteen million gallons could be stored. This fifty-five million gallons plus the local dam's five million gallons gives the Commission a source of some sixty million gallons to provide to the canning factory. In the hydro department the Commission was able to do very little during the war years. In 1940 the number of hydro customers would have been about 400, The rates paid in 1940 in- cluded those given below: Domestic - 3 cents per kwh for the first 60 hours and 9 cents per kwh for over 60 hours. The minimum bill was about 83 cents. Flat rate water heaters were 44 cents per 100 watts per month. The Ontario Hydro rates to the commission in 1940 were $34.50 per horse power per year. 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