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Coffeyville
Municipal Light & Power
1901-2008
A Century of Community Service
Early attempts to bring electric lights to
Coffeyville.
1890
April 2nd - A private individual, J.H. Kuder,
was granted a twenty-year franchise by the Coffeyville city commission
to erect poles, string wires and to distribute electric current for
lighting purposes. As part
of this franchise, the City contracted for eight 2,000 candlepower arc
lights to be installed, at locations designated by the Mayor and
Councilmen, on or before June 1, 1890.
It is believed that Mr. Kuder had operated his power plant
located near the intersection of 4th & Santa Fe streets
since 1886. However, the
plant was ultimately unsuccessful and ceased operations only a few years
after the franchise was granted.
1897
December 7th - A special election was held to consider
the issuance of $17,000 in bonds for the construction of a municipal
electric light and power plant. Although
the bond proposition passed in a three-to-one vote, delays in locating
an acceptable master electrician to prepare the plant specifications and
a growing concern by some citizens as to the cost of electric lights
compared with gas lights caused this first attempt to put in a municipal
plant to become mired down in a political and legal tug-of-war lasting
into 1900.
1900
June 6th - A report by a committee
appointed by the City Commission to investigate the electric light issue
reads in part as follows: “…Gentlemen
in this dawn of the Twentieth century there is but one light and that is
electricity… Therefore, in view of the foregoing and the belief of
your committee that the people of this city want electric lights… we
would respectfully recommend…submission to the voters of a proposition
to issue municipal electric light bonds in the sum of $20,000 for the
erection and equipment of a municipal electric light and power plant…”
- C.S. Pellett, Andy Curry, and C.D. Metcalf, Electric Light Committee.
A second bond issue for electric
lights is passed.
September 4th -
A
second special election is held on the electric light issue and the
proposition to issue $20,000 in bonds for construction of an electric
light and power plant easily passes.
October
18th - The
City Commission passes Ordinance No. 480 awarding the contract for
construction of an electric light & power plant to The St. Louis
Electrical Supply Company of St. Louis, MO, at a cost of $17,952 leaving
a balance of $2,048 for the purchase of a site, gas connections, etc.
The plans and specifications called for installation of a plant
with 120 kW capacity provided by two Ideal steam engines each connected
to a belt-driven 60 kW dynamo.
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Coffeyville Power Plant
1904 |
1901
March
6th
– The City Commission passed Ordinance No. 490 establishing service
rates for customers of the new municipal electric light and power plant
as follows:
FLAT
RATES
Incandescent,
16 Candlepower
lamps,
for residences, churches, halls, etc.
1 to 6 lights – 25 cents ea./mo.
Each additional light until 12 are
taken – 20 cents ea./mo.
Each additional light until 20 are
taken – 15 cents ea./mo.
Each additional light after 20 are
taken – 10 cents ea./mo.
Incandescent, 16
Candlepower lamps, for business houses, etc.
1 to 10 lights – 25 cents ea./mo.
Each additional light until 20 are
taken – 20 cents ea./mo.
Each additional light after 20 are
taken – 15 cents ea./mo.
Above
rates for ordinary lighting. For
lights burned till midnight add 20 percent to these rates, for lights
burned all night add 50 percent to the midnight rate.
Arc Lights, 2,000
Candlepower lamps
1 light
------------- $3.50/mo.
2 lights
------------ $6.50/mo.
3 lights or over
-- $3.00 ea./mo.
Meter
rates will be made on application, but no meter will be connected for
less than ten lights, the minimum monthly charge where a meter is used
shall be $1.00 for residences and $1.50 for business houses.
Finally,
the municipal light plant begins operations.
April
12th
– The new municipal electric light plant located between 6th
& 7th streets along Santa Fe was put into operation for
the first time to do actual work at 8 p.m. on this Friday evening.
The fifty-two arc lights installed about town for street lighting
were the first electric loads for the new plant. In the beginning, the
streetlights were burned according to the “Philadelphia Moonlight
Schedule” meaning that they were only used on particularly dark,
moonless, or cloudy nights. Some
of the first businesses connected to the new electric system were
Upham’s, Whitney Lumber, A.R. McKenna, and the Tremont Hotel.
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Early day linemen stringing
wire in 1906 at the SW corner of 9th & Maple near the Jefferson
Theater. The arc light at
the top of the pole is one of the original 52 lights installed in 1901.
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1904
July
19th
- A special election to issue $15,000 in bonds for expansion of the
power plant was held and the proposition passes 7 to 1 with low voter
turnout. The proposed
expansion increased the plant capacity from 120 kW to 400 kW, sufficient
to carry 100 arc lights and 5,000 incandescent lights.
1905
February
9th
- The City Commission approved the purchase of major equipment for the
power plant expansion including three Wekana tubular boilers, two
Hamilton Corliss steam engines and two 200 kW dynamos.
September
29th
– The first of two new 200 kW dynamos was put into service. As part of the plant expansion, the primary distribution line
voltage in town was increased from 1,100 Volts to 2,200 Volts.
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Corliss
type horizontal steam engine similar to the engines installed in the
plant in 1905. |
1906
November
26th
- Electric rates were revised under Ordinance No. 770 to include kWh
meter rates in addition to the flat rates.
Customers were given the option of providing their own meter,
subject to approval by the utility, or having the utility provide a
meter and paying a deposit.
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Kilowatt-hour meter - Westinghouse Type A
manufactured 1903-1904. Early
electric customers were given the option of paying a flat rate or
purchasing their own kWh meter and paying a metered rate.
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1907
Though
based on today’s standards, the dim and flickering lamps of that era
would be considered impossible, citizens were accepting this
‘new-fangled” method of lighting homes in such volume that an
increased capacity of 600 kW was essential.
1911
December
4th
– The City Commission passes Ordinance No. 1185 establishing a “Big
White Way” in the business district calling for the installation of
electric lights on ornamental iron posts along each block within the
district. Downtown merchants purchased the poles and the City furnished
the installation and electricity. The
cast iron posts were made locally by the Coffeyville Iron Works and
later by Acme Foundry. Streetlights
prior to this time were primarily located at intersections only. By 1915, there were 150 of these 5-light ornamental
streetlights in the downtown district.
The number of white-way fixtures had increased to 254 by 1932.
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This 1940s photo shows a typical “White-way”
street lighting standard located in front of the J.J. Newberry Co. store
on West 9th Street..
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1913
The downtown “White-way” lighting started in
1911 was the envy of other towns of this section.
The additional street lighting load, coupled with increasing
consumer demand made a further plant expansion to 900 kW necessary.
1917
Commercial and industrial
activity accentuated by World War I brought a doubling of the plant
capacity to 1800 kW with the addition of a 900 kW steam turbine.
During this time, the power plant building was reconstructed
around the existing machinery and the steel stacks associated with each
boiler was removed and combined into a single 175 ft concrete
smokestack. Reports of the
time stated that the new turbine could be powered from the exhaust steam
from the existing engines or directly by the new boiler that was
configured to burn Southeast Kansas coal.
1920s
This period in the life of the
municipally owned plant saw plant operations continually expand and
private utilities expressed a desire in purchasing the revenue producing
plant. Two
private utilities proposed a buyout of the City’s municipal electric
system by circulating petitions calling for a special election on their
buyout proposal. However,
on August 1st, 1922, citizens voted 3 to 1 to retain
ownership of the utility and the phrase “THIS PLANT IS NOT FOR SALE”
was later painted on the power plant’s 175 ft tall smokestack as a
reminder of the community’s stance on this issue.
It is said that these words were still visible when the
smokestack was raised in 1949 as part of a plant expansion project.
| Oscar Jensen
(1865-1942), a native of Denmark, served as Commissioner of Streets and
Utilities during most of the 1920s.
He was instrumental in the fight to keep local control of the
municipal electric utility during the buyout campaign of 1922.
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Three Westinghouse steam
turbines (1,500 kW, 2,000 kW, and 3,000 kW) were installed during
1923-1927, the old boilers were replaced, and the old belt-driven
generators were scraped resulting in a plant capacity of 6,150 kW.
The existing plant walls were extended and a new roof supported
by steel beams was added to accommodate the new equipment. Having weathered a buyout attempt earlier in the decade and
later expanding to become a modern and efficient power plant made the
Utilities Commissioner of the time, Oscar Jensen, quite proud of the
electric system. To insure
there was no question in the mind of the average passer-by as to who
owned and operated this modern and efficient plant, a large, electric
advertising sign, 20 x 80 ft, bearing the inscription “Coffeyville
Municipal Light & Power” was purchased from the Mehl Brothers
Sheet Metals Works of Coffeyville and installed on top of the expanded
plant building.
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Coffeyville Power Plant in 1932 showing the phrase
“THIS PLANT IS NOT FOR SALE” painted on smokestack.
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1930s
In the early days of the
depression a small decrease in energy consumption occurred but for a
short time only. After the
first shock of economic distress passed, the upward trend of energy
consumption continued on.
By 1932, the utility supplied current to approximately 4,500
domestic customers and about 65 industrial plants and had a total system
peak demand of 2,700 kW. Electric
was furnished to 300 streetlights using 6,000 lumen lamps and 254
“White-Way” standards using 300 Watts each.
In addition to the City of Coffeyville, the utility provided
power to South Coffeyville, OK, Copan, OK, and Caney, KS.
The approximate value of the plant had grown to $975,000 from the
initial investment of $20,000 in 1901.
September 1939 brought completion of another plant expansion including
the addition of a 5,000 kW Westinghouse turbine-generator.
| This entry on the West face of the plant
was added in the late 1940's. |
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1941-1946
World War II brought peak
load demand to 7,900 kW much too close to plant capacity for comfortable
operation. Wartime
shortages and restrictions prevented an expansion to alleviate the
danger of power outages due to overworked equipment.
1947-1949
Brought a return of material
and equipment supplies making possible the completion of the expansion
program. A 10,000 kW
Westinghouse turbine-generator and new boilers were installed bringing
plant capacity up to 21,500 kW. However,
actual capacity was limited to 15,000 kW by the existing cooling towers. It was at this time that the current West facade and upper level
offices at the north end of the plant were added. During this time, the primary operating voltage of the
distribution system was increased from 2,300 Volts to 4,160 Volts.
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Coffeyville Power Plant
following addition of Turbine-generator Unit #5 in the late 1940s. |
Click
here for 1950 - current
Coffeyville Municipal Light & Power
P. O. Box 1629
Coffeyville, KS 67337
620-252-6180
 cmlp@coffeyville.com
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