[PRCo] Re: Sharpsburg sells power facilities

[Fred Schneider]

You heard it from the professor!

On Sep 2, 2010, at 7:46 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> And you probably didn't know that Sam Insull was president of the West Penn
> empire in the mid-teens.  After the railways' parent company emerged from
> bankruptcy proceedings, largely on the strength of the railway earnings (bet
> you didn't know that, either), he served as president for a relatively short
> time.  His is the signature all over the document formalizing the 1916
> reorganizations of Railways and Power (in which Railways was granted the
> large block of Power stock that kept them alive well beyond 1920, when they
> last earned their bond interest); we have a copy of same in the PTM Library.
> 
> Ed
>  _____  
> 
> From: Fred Schneider [mailto:fwschneider at comcast.net] 
> Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 7:11 PM
> To: Pittsburgh-Railways at Dementia.Org; Matthew R Barry; Ed Lybarger
> Subject: Sharpsburg sells power facilities
> 
> 
> 
> 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
> <http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vMEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ck8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7496
> %2C2115371> &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.
> 
> 
> 
>