Decade of the 60's
The Board of Directors declared a two percent stock dividend on common stock, one share for each fifty shares outstanding because the Board believed that the common stockholders are entitled to have issued to them stock certificates representing capitalization of a part of the accumulated earnings not distributed as cash dividends. The dividend was reported on February 24, 1960.
Director Louis R. Meyer terminated his tenure on the Board of Directors on April 12, 1960, because of illness. Marshall M. Koch was elected to succeed him.
Demands of so-called "preference customers" for Missouri River Power began to exceed the supply by this time. Because of contracts with Rushmore G & T Cooperative, the company was called upon to supply a portion of the power requirements of Rushmore's member cooperatives in western South Dakota.
In the summer of 1960, the Company purchased the electric properties in the communities of Hot Springs, Buffalo Gap, and Oral, South Dakota, from Central Gas and Electric Company. This acquisition made the Company the only investor-owned utility providing electric service in the Black Hills. The system served approximately 1,700 retail customers and adjacent rural areas.
For the past 35 years Central Electric and Gas Company supplied electricity to commercial and residential customers of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and two neighboring communities, Oral and Buffalo Gap. This company also supplied the water to citizens of Hot Springs.
Central operated a four-engine diesel plant and a hydro-electric plant with a total rated capacity of 2,000 hp. The company was tied in with Black Hills Power and Light Company and arrangements were made to purchase power when required. The hydro-electric plant was located approximately 4 miles south of Hot Springs. A low-head dam was installed together with a diversion ditch and flumes which carried the water from Fall River to the powerhouse located about three-quarters of a mile below the river falls. The plant consisted of a 300 hp water wheel driving a 250 kVA generator.
Hot Springs has been appropriately called "The City of Healing Waters". Even in the early days before the white man, Indians in the Black Hills were known to have made use of the warm mineral water springs for various ailments. The control of the springs led to many battles between Indian tribes. Battle Mountain, which rises a thousand feet above the city to the east, was so named because it represents the last point of the struggle between the chiefs of the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes for possession of the marvelous springs. The Indians called one of the important springs, "Minnekahta" the Sioux term for warm water. Another spring was named "Catholicon", taken from the Greek word for universal cure for all ills, and still another spring which now furnishes the water for Battle Mountain Sanatorium was called the Mammoth Springs. There are 29 springs which pour warm mineral water into Fall River which originates in beautiful Hot Brook Canyon three miles west of the city.
The city has become a national health resort. The state of South Dakota established the State Soldiers Home and the United States government built one of the largest Veterans Administration Hospitals in the midcontinent at Hot Springs. The Battle Mountain Sanatorium, a federal institution for treatment of tuberculosis, is also located in Hot Springs.
The Central Electric and Gas Company's franchise expired on June 8, 1958, and the mayor and council would not agree to terms of a new franchise. They decided that the city should go into the electric utility business and should construct a duplicate $625,000 electric system in Hot Springs. When the bond issue was brought before the electorate, it was defeated.
The Company was also negotiating to interconnect its system with the western system of the United States Bureau of Reclamation. This interconnection, together with the Eastern Missouri Basin tie, would make it possible for the Company to participate in pooling arrangements with utilities located in the midwestern part of the country. Additional capacity would be needed by 1963, and participation in the pooling facilities could prove helpful to the Company in delaying the investment in generating equipment.
In March of 1960, the Company purchased the distribution system serving Custer State Park from the state of South Dakota, at a bid price of $15,000. There were 100 existing customers in the Park.
Helicopter patrol of the transmission system was started on a trial basis in 1960 and has been used each year since. When trouble is spotted the observer locates it by pole number and vocally records the information by tape recorder. It used to take four full days to patrol the Rapid City to Osage line, but with the helicopter it took one hour and 15 minutes. It was also felt that a better job was done.
For nearly two years the Company has been negotiating with the state-owned cement plant to continue to provide electric service. The Company had been supplying the Plant's entire requirements at a low rate. In October of 1960, a
new five-year contract was signed which provided that the Company would supply approximately one-third of the plant's total requirements at increased rates, and the United States Bureau of Reclamation will supply the remainder. The Company would "Wheel" the Bureau power over its line for a flat rate per kWh.
The first four carloads of coal for the Ben French Station was delivered in September 1960. It was anticipated that about 10,000 tons would be stockpiled before the plant opening. It would use approximately seven carloads a day when in full operation.
County commissioners in Butte, Custer, Lawrence, and Meade counties followed the precedent set by Pennington County in the request for permits to use county roads and highway right-of-ways for electric lines. The Company asked for blanket permits to use road right-of-ways for the installation of electric lines and facilities. Similar applications were filed by REA Coops serving in these counties. At the hearings the REA's asked that all applications be turned down, and the commissioners did turn them down.
The Board of Directors elected Harry Z. Babbitt, Vice President and George D. Weedman, Assistant Secretary, in 1961.
The "Dispatch Office" was established in January of 1961 under the supervision of Mack West. Bill Beck, chief dispatcher, Don Adams and John Schunneman formed the dispatch group. The department's responsibilities included plant loading, supervision of transmission and subtransmission line switching and bus voltage levels. The dispatch office was located in the south wing of the main floor at the Ben French plant.
J. B. French, Chairman of the Board, was elected to the Board of Directors of Western Power and Gas Company in 1961. French was also selected as a member of the executive committee. For the past 10 years he has been a member of the board of Southern Colorado Power Company and chairman of its executive committee. Southern Colorado had recently merged with Central Electric & Gas Company and the name of the combined companies changed to Western Power & Gas Company. That Company operated gas, electric and telephone properties in South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and seven other states.
In May of 1961, the Company announced the availability of a new lower rate for total electric homes and a new service called the "Nightlighter Service". For a charge of $3.75 per month, a yard light could be installed on any of the Company's existing wooden poles. It provided additional safety and protection for customers.
Another service provided by the Company for many years was a loan of two large commercial electric grills. Nearly every organization in the service area took advantage of the use of the grills for pancake feeds, hamburger fries, and other events. The Company would deliver the grills and hook up the wiring free of charge.
It was announced in May of 1961 that the employees had worked more than one million man-hours without a lost time accident. It was the second time in the Company's history that such a goal had been achieved.
In July 1961, the Ben French plant was dedicated. After many conferences extending over several years, an agreement was reached with Consumers Public Power District of Nebraska which would provide for high voltage inter-tie between the two systems. This tie not only permitted the Company to purchase capacity in 1963 and 1964, but would allow the Company to join in pool operations in the Rocky Mountain area.
On October 31, 1961, the Company was 20 years old. During the twenty-year period, the rate of growth was considerably higher than that experienced by the utility industry as a whole. The Company was now serving three times the number of customers, providing ten times the number of kilowatt-hours, and receiving eight times the gross revenue that it received in the first year of operation.