[PRCo] Sharpsburg sells power facilities

[Fred Schneider]

Why the _______ is this item important?   Well, most power companies were derivatives of the railway industry.   You couldn't find customers for your streetcars but they were able to find people who wanted light bulbs in their homes.   The only major electric railway property in Pennsylvania that was not connected to a power subsidiary?  Philadelphia Rapid Transit.
Pittsburgh Railways, Duquesne Light and Equitable Gas and San Francisco's Market Street Railway were one and the same company.   West Penn Railways, Wheeling Traction, Monongahela West Penn Public Service, Potomac Edison, Hagerstown & Frederick Railway and the Chambersburg, Greencastle and Wayneboro Electric Railway were all under common ownership.   In the east, Pennsylvania Power and Light, UGI, Conestoga Traction, Lehigh Valley Transit, Williamsport Passenger Railways, Jersey Shore Electric St. Ry.; Lykens and Williams Valley Ry., Valley Railways (Cumberland County), and, briefly, Lancaster, Ephrata and Lebanon St. Ry. were the same alphabet soup.   And were not Altoona and Logan Valley and Penn Elec related at one time?   There is absolutely no coincidence that today's Metropolitan Edison and the former Reading Traction and Light / Reading Street Railway have the same foot print.   But why is Met Ed in York?   Well, when Sam Insull's Middlewest Utilities went broke in 1939, Met Ed bought the power facilities.   

You didn't know that York Railways was related to CSS&SB, CA&E, CNS&M and the Indiana Railroad?   Well it was.   

You may also remember that Harold Cox once described the paint on Reading streetcars at "red and gray in disarray."   Why was it so similar to Southern Penn and Delaware Electric Power Company and Trenton?   You got it.   At one time they were same company.   And Trenton NJ was also in that stew.   

Now does it make sense to include the power company history?

By the way, in the attached file, the indents match the newspaper.   But I got tired of feeding you paragraphs with one sentence because journalists write for people with a fourth grade education.   I combined sentences with a similar topic to make reading easier on the printed version below.

(Dave:  one of the guys on the Pittsburgh list started scanning the on-line files of the Supress ... prompted me to do some of the same.  fws)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vMEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ck8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7496%2C2115371

 

Pittsburgh Press,  Thursday August 22, 1963, page 3 (digital) or page 5 (print)

 

Sharpsburg Votes to Sell Power System

 

Council Okays Duquesne Light’s $500,000 Offer

 

By ROGER W. STUART

 

  Sharpsburg Borough Council has voted 6-to-1 to sell its light and power system to the Duquesne Light Co. for $500,000. 

   Borough officials say customers will plug into the same company’s circuit at a “substantial savings” if the Public Utility Commission (PUC) approves of the sale.

    Council President Michael Urso said last night he expects PUC action in 30 to 90 days.

    Duquesne Light will purchase only the service rights to Sharpsburg’s 2000 residential, commercial and industrial light and power users.     The borough will retain possession of its power plant, which has been in operation since 1939, and the land it is on.

    Voting to sell to Duquesne Light were President Urso and Councilmen Dom DeBonis, Joseph Green, Charles Morelli, John Susi and Oresti Panza.   William Neff was the lone dissenter.   Mayor Chester Zygello has not yet signed the town ordinances paving the way for the sale, but he has not indicated he will veto them.   If he should, however, council wil have to go through the formality of passing the measures again   But Mr. Urso said that would cause no problem because he necessary two-third vote to override a veto was received the firs time.

    The “battle of the power plant” hit a fever pitch four years ago when council voted for $1,500,000 conversion of the plant from coal to a diesel operation.   But the conversion never took place.   It was blocked in the courts until last March when a planel of judges rejected the prolonged legal battle by a group of borough taxpayers to halt it.   By that time, the complexion of council had changed and that body no longer favored the switch.

    At one time, the borough’s high rates were blamed for driving at east one industry out of the borough and preventing another one from establishing there.   Sam DeFazio, chairman of Taxpayer’s league hopes the sale of service rights, will help entice industry back into the borough.   He pointed out as did Mr. Urso, that the borough’s plant and approximately 5 acres of accompanying land is now prime industrial property.