|
|
Description:
Beautifully engraved Certificate from the Tri - Utilities Corporation issued in September 1929. This historic document was printed by the Hamilton Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignettes of oil storage facilities, electric power transmission lines and a river & dam. This item is hand signed by the company's officers and is over 71 years old. The item also has over 80 unused coupons attached to it that are not shown in the scanned image. Syracuse Suburban Water began operations with a new dam and intake at Otisco Lake, a reservoir in Fairmount, and a standpipe in Eastwood. The single transmission line was 20 inches in diameter from the lake through Fairmount to Solvay Process. From there to the DeWitt yards they ran a 16 inch main; and from DeWitt to the Minoa shops and from Fairmount to Amboy they ran 8 inch lines. Whenever possible the mains were laid in the New York Central's right of way, presumably to avoid long and expensive negotiations with individual property owners and local governments to obtain their own right of way.12 *The 1892 state charter giving permission to draw water from Skaneateles Lake to the City of Syracuse was the basis of the corporation counsel's claim. The opening of the new line took place without fanfare. Local newspapers made no mention of the event, which probably occurred on the first of July when the Otisco Lake operator made the first entries into the log book. The log shows they pumped an average of 3.1 million gallons per day the first month. Demand rose sharply in November to an average daily demand of 3.8 million gallons in January and February. The following Spring a water meter was installed to measure production more accurately. Chlorination equipment was added on October 6, 1914.13 For more than a decade, the system ran uneventfully. The transmission line was shut down only three times before 1924, once to clean the Fairmount reservoir (July 16, 1913) and twice to make connections (June 21, 1913 and June 26, 1913 ). The first break in the transmission line, in May of 1924 at Marcellus Falls, was repaired before customers were inconvenienced. Two more cracks in the same bridge in February of 1925 caused Syracuse Suburban's only other major shutdowns.14 In December of 1926, the Federal Water Service bought Syracuse Suburban and changed its name to the Onondaga Water Service. Shortly after, the system began expanding and became once more the center of controversy. In 1927 the 20 inch transmission line between the lake and Fairmount was augmented by a 24 inch line. The next year chlorination equipment at Otisco was replaced, and the Wolf Street booster station and service building were added. Then anticipating heavy demand from the New York Central, the Onondaga Water Service increased capacity by building a new Otisco booster station in 1929.15 Demand for water soon began to justify improvements in the system. First, Suburban Syracuse experienced a housing boom in the late 1920's. Developers either installed or paid the Onondaga Water Service to install mains and services in new tracts in Mattydale, Lyncourt, and Fairmount. A Builder was charged 70 cents a foot for six and eight inch mains, and ten dollars plus a two dollar advance minimum for 3/4 inch taps in the McCain tract.16 Second, supply to some older areas was upgraded. Both the village of Lyncourt and town of Salina had two, two and Lyncourt and town of Salina had two, two and a half, and three inch mains replaced by six and-eight inch mains when they formed fire districts and paid for hydrants.17 Third, the Onondaga Water Service added 400 customers when the village of North Syracuse gave them a perpetual franchise in exchange for six and twelve inch mains, 90 hydrants, and an elevated tank inch mains, 90 hydrants, and an elevated tank in 1929. For several years village officials tried to form their own water systems, but voters repeatedly turned down bond issues.18 Fourth, the Onondaga Water Service began selling water wholesale to new water districts formed in already settled areas, water districts formed in already settled areas, including the Dooley tract in Fairmount in 1928, the Fairmount water district in 1929, and the Camillus and Cityview water districts in 1930.19 Finally, the Water Service picked up three new industrial customers: Fairmount State School (1929), Syracuse Airport (Amboy)(1929), and Will and Baumer Candle factory (1930).20 A stock market crash in 1929 and the subsequent collapse of the economy by the end of 1930 sharply reduced demand for water and stopped expansion, with one exception--a main extension on Buckley Road in 1939 to serve several truck farmers. The new customers undertook the trenching and backfilling themselves. The only major improvement to the system in the decade was the installation of chlorination equipment at Fairmount reservoir to eliminate E coli from the lines east of the reservoir.21 Conflict between the Onondaga Water Service and various sections of the public increased in the twenties and took off during the depression. It began with Marcellus mill owners. When Onondaga Water Service planned expanding their capacity they went to the Water Control Commission to obtain permission to draw eleven million gallons per day from Otisco Lake--an increase of six million gallons per day. Marcellus Paper Company, Onondaga Paper Company and the Crown Mills then asked for damages equal to the entire value of their mills. The State then formed a condemnation commission in 1928 to settle on the amount owed by the Water Service.22 Three years later, conflict between Onondaga Water Service and mill owners began again. Drought in 1930 had reduced the lake level to more than 70 inches below the dam marker by the end of January, 1931.* Onondaga Water Service officials tried to reduce flow into Nine Mile Creek to maintain water quality. Mill owners went to the State
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: noname8 |
| Condition:
See Description |
Year:
See Description
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
Dealer Policies: Scripophily Policy Details
Dealer Accepts:       
|
My
Basket
