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HomeMy Public PortalAbout03-02-1942 29 MEETING OF THE COMMON COUNCIL,SERVING AS A COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION OF THE MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND POWER PLANT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND, INDIANA. The Common Council of the City of Richmond, Indiana, serving as a Committee in charge of the operation of the Municipal Electric Lighting and Power Plant of the said City, met in the office of the Board of Works, Monday, March 2nd, 1942, at 8:30 P. M. Messrs. Beeson, Chambers, Hibberd, Homan, Kinder, Tracy, Weisbrod and Wilkins being present the following proceedings were had to-wit; The reading of the minutes'. of the previous meetings.was dispensed with. A letter was presented and read to Council from the Board of Trustees of the Reid Memorial Hospital expressing their appreciation for the contribution of Electric Current from the Municipal Electric Light Plant in the amount of $3,600.00 , also the fine co-operation Council had always...extended in matters pertaining to the Hospital. • Mr. Stevens gave a report on generation of electric current during the month of February , stating it was above the previous year for the same period' the same being 1)4.8 k'. w. hi$h peak for the month. A letter was presented to Council from the Trustees of the Reid Memorial Hospital expressing their appreciation for the assistance and approval received in regard to the installation of a unit for emergency use at the Reid Hospital. Aletter was presented from the Jenkins Bros. Insurance Co. in regard to War Risk Insurance for the Light Plant and the matter was referred to Mr. Stevens for further consideration. Mr. Stevens presented the following report to Council acting as Board of Managers for the Light Plant in regard to the new equippment • for the Light Plant and etc. , You are all partially familiar with the developments over the past two weeks, in which the 15,000 K. W. turbo -generator and the 15,180 snuare foot condenser were requisitioned by the War Produce tion Beard, and will not be delivered to us, and I wish to make the reports Early in February I received a formal report from the Federal Power Commission on their recent inspection of our property for sab- • otage and property protection. In the letter accompanying this report their recommendation was that we consider possibilities of an inter-connection with some other utility, in as much as they understood that we had abandoned a proposed installation of a new turbb .generator. I immediately wrote to the Federal Power Commission, stating that they had either been misinformed or there was a misunderstanding regarding this, as we were going ahead with the program as fast as possible. • Not having received a reply to this letter I called Mr. Bosch in the ower Branch of the War Production Board on February 19, to find out if he knew where the Federal Power Commission had gotten this information. He stated that there was considerable pressure ' being placed upon him to ship this equippment to a war industry. and advised me to be in W:^.shingtori on february 23, to go over the situa- tion with them. I immediately started getting all the data possible together to take along in an effort to convince them that we should not lose the equipment. I contacted Mr. Tracy,Chairman of the Utility Committee, and he appointed Councilman Homan and Weisbrod and John W. Mueller, Emgineer to accompany me. (cont 'd) 30 In our first meeting with the Power Branch on Monday, it vas very evident that angt arguments _that we were able to make was hav- ing no impression and I finaly asked Mr. Bosch if it was definitely • settled by them that we were not to receive the equipment. He stated that this was the situation, and stated also, in as much as they were • taking the equipment that they were going to do everything within there power to take of our situation in Richmond. He and Mr. Cisler, Mr. Bosch's immediate superior then outlined to us their plan, stating we had six or seven thousand kilowatts available for the power pool and that through an inter-connection with one of the neighboring utilities we could supply this amount of po power for the war program, and at the same time have power -available from the other utility for. our use in case of break-down or trouble et our plant. They had an engineer from the Public Service Company of Ind- iana in a meeting with us on Tuesday, instructing him to make up a proposal for such inter-connection. They then had an engineer from the American Gas and. Electric Company in a meeting with us on Wed- nesday giving him the same instructions. These two companies to pre- pare and present their propositions to me, and for me incorporate them in a. report to the Power Branch which I was instructed to present at the the Power Branch on Thursday, March 5. In the meantime I called it to their attention that the inter- connection & changes to nur plant Which were involved in us not getting the new equipment would run into considerable money, and inasmuch as they were responsible for this expenditure I felt it should be paid for by the Federal Government. There was considerable discussion on this subject and finaly they took us to the office of the Defense Plant Gorporation, thinking that this office may have funds to take care of the situation. We spent considerable time in this office, with Mr. Greist and he would not give us an answer on it at that time, and asked that we present him with a report covering the whole propo- sition . • The day of my return from Washington, February 26, I received from one of our largest industries a telephone call asking that I give him a letter, stating wether or not our Utility could furnish them with from trenty-five to fifty per-cent more power than they are now using. I replied to this in the affirmatiMe. On the following day February 27, I was contacted by a repre- senative of a large industry that would like to build a new plant in • or adjacent to Richmond. He stated this plant would have a 5,000 k.w. peak demand. I explained to him.wha.t was taking place in the power . situation in Richmond at this time and I do not know at this time • wether or not this factory will locate here. Regardless of wether or not we receive these additional loads we are going to exceed our firm capacity at the plant before we can make proper arrangements for reserve capacity. The Power Branch of the War Production Board, however, have assured us that they will give us high priority ratings on all materials necessary for this • extra capacity, and will assist us in any way possible to get early delivery. After allowing claims in the amount of $ $5,94+5.86 on pro- per motion they adjourned. I President AttesZiLfs- t• City Clerk.