Decade of the 50's
In 1950 Mr. French was elected to the Board of Directors of the Southern Colorado Power Company at Pueblo, Colorado. He was also elected President of the Southern Colorado Power Company. He served on both Black Hills and Southern Colorado's Board of Directors and was President of both companies. He had the understanding that the Colorado position would be over January 1, 1953.
Neil Simpson, Vice President, was promoted to General Manager of the Company.
In 1950 the Company was in the process of negotiating contracts with Rapid City Air Force Base, local REA cooperatives, and the South Dakota Cement Plant, all of which would be "preference" customers if and when Missouri River power becomes available.
On May 15, 1950, the Company completed the sale of $900,000 First Mortgage Bonds Series E, 3 percent due March 1, 1980. The Bonds were sold to the Equitable Assurance Society of the United States at 10.99 percent and the principal amount was deposited with the Mortgage Trustee subject to withdrawal against Property Additions in accordance with the terms of the Indenture. A withdrawal of $330,000 was made and the balance will be withdrawn from time to time against Property Additions as construction work progressed.
In 1950 the Company executed a contract with the United States Bureau of Reclamation under the terms of which the Company would purchase the entire output of a 1200 kW hydro unit to be installed at the Angostura Irrigation Project near Hot Springs, South Dakota. The Company would resell the major portion of the power from this plant at wholesale to the Central Electric and Gas Company of Hot Springs and to the REA serving the rural area surrounding Hot Springs. On December 19, 1951, the Company began purchasing power from the small Angostura hydro-plant of the Bureau of Reclamation. During the first quarter of operation, 2,701,521 kWh were purchased at an average cost of 4 mils per kWh.
On August 16, 1950, the city of Rapid City held an election and granted the Company a new twenty-year franchise by a 20 to 1 vote. It was the fourth new franchise granted by substantial majorities in Black Hills communities within two years. The Company felt these expressions of confidence, along with the proposed agreements to construct a joint power plant, clearly indicated that the Company had little to fear from public power encroachment as long as it continued the policy of giving good service at reasonable rates.
Etta Newkirk, Assistant Secretary of the Company since its incorporation and personal secretary to Mr. French, married George Crouch, President of West River Electric Association.
Harold Norman, Deadwood Local Manager, transferred from Deadwood to Rapid City and was appointed Assistant Secretary/Treasurer. Harold had been with the Company since 1921 and worked in the Accounting Department with Consolidated Power and Light Company in Deadwood, where he also served as local manager. He transferred to Rapid City as the Auditor for a short time. He was a commanding officer of an amphibious landing craft during World War II, participating in three major landings.
By the time Black Hills Power and Light Company was ten years old it was a solid and well-rounded operating company. The construction and operation department had built the Osage Power Plant with the third unit ready to go into operation early in 1952. The 69 kV network transmission grid had been completed with substantial distribution rebuilding and extension. All towns had modern Mercury Vapor street lighting systems and franchises for all towns were obtained through 1965. Adequate financial arrangements had been made through issuing bonds, common and preferred stock, and joint plant lease contracts completed with the Rural Electrification Association. All towns with local offices had appliance and service stores managed and owned by each local manager and their employees, except in Newcastle, Wyoming. This arrangement through the Company was a form of incentive plan to increase load building efforts by local ownership, and to help managers become better businessmen.
A sales department to help build load had existed prior to the incorporation of Black Hills Power and Light Company, and it had developed into a full scale load building effort after World War II ended. Martin Westberg, with a background of sales manager experience in the utility business in Nebraska, was placed in charge of building the department. He inherited the existing Home Service Departments that had been operating in the Northern Hills since 1935. Mae Bledsoe was the Home Service Counselor presenting school programs and training sessions to customers on the care and use of electrical appliances. She traveled to all the Northern Hills towns on a regular basis. Harriet Christie was in charge of the program in Rapid City and Custer. She was assisted by Virginia Pier (Simpson) and Bess Ryther (Protheroe) in the early years. Much credit goes to the employees in this well operated department for the acceptance and interest generated in the appliance load building program. They developed well planned advertising and promotion schedules, and incentive sales contests with regular reports all helped to create the interest and desire to increase sales.
Each local office, as part of the load building program, made appliance service a high priority. An inoperative appliance meant lost revenue and lost customer satisfaction. Because of the population growth in Rapid City, major emphasis was placed on building an effective service department. Bud Clow headed the department at the beginning. He was followed by Karl Meier who was replaced by Alvin Wessel when Karl was transferred to the Air Base. It was often stated by Hotpoint representatives and the other dealers that Al Wessel and his crew of Nick Paschke, Don Larson, John Schumacher and several others who worked there for shorter periods of time, were the best. They were professional appliance servicemen with excellent public relation skills.
Several dams and power plants on the Missouri River in North and South Dakota were under various stages of construction by the Army Engineers. The first of these was scheduled for completion in 1954.
The electric energy generated at the river plants would be distributed by the Bureau of Reclamation in South Dakota and several adjoining states. The federal law under which the power was distributed required that priority be given to federal projects, municipalities, rural electric cooperatives, and other so called preference customers. During the early years of operation it was expected that there would not be enough power generated to take care of the full requirements of all preference customers. It was argued that the plan presented a problem for South Dakota because there were comparatively few preference customers in this state. In the neighboring state of Nebraska, the entire state is served by public power districts that qualify as preference customers.
The load continued to grow at a very satisfactory rate. Total revenues exceeded the previous year by 12.36 percent and kWh sales increased by 18.56 percent.