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Show " -"THi Unr fi HI iniUfffc nmrrB-ni Community Effort to Obtain Electric Power Lighted Two Towns, Raised Living Standard It was far from being an adequate poiver house; current was on only six hours out of the twenty-four. Nevertheless, its destruction by fire spelled double disaster to the citizens of Tangier, an island town in Accomac county, Virginia. In the first place, pedestrians need light after dark to walk safely the narroic, irregular streets of Tangier and to cross the numerous footbridges over the canals that separate the three habitable ridges. The island fishermen need lights to' guide them homeward; also the island boats need beacon lights to help them keep a bearing in a nearby near-by part of Chesapeake Bay. In the second place, while the need was great, the cost made the prospect of replacement of the plant appear dim indeed. To finance fi-nance the little plant that had burned, town officials of Tangier had borrowed $10,000. The liquidation liqui-dation of this high interest loan A iliiHfflBiii Ssm&g FEATURE had been a lengthy hardship for the people of Tangier. In the light of such an experience, the town officials were wary about negotiating another loan. Then just at the time that things looked the blackest, a newcomer bobbed up with the name of a federal agency that made long-time low-interest loans to rural areas unable to obtain electric power from private companies. Representatives frm Tangier went immediately to Washington Wash-ington to sound out the RE A (Rural Electrification Administration). Admin-istration). They came home with a rather dismaying report. The REA figured that an adequate power plant would cost Tangier about 200,000 tn amount far beyond the paying poiver of the 200 families that constitute Tangier. Presently, a man with an inspiration turned the eyes of the toivn to a neighbor island that wanted electricity but could not swing it alone. This was Smith Island, a part of Somerset Somer-set county, Maryland, but only 10 miles away from Tangier. The officials of Tangier and Smith Island got together, talked things over, and decided to pool people and resources. As a result the Chesapeake Islands Electrical Cooperative was born. With Smith Island's population added to its oivn, Tangier had enough members and potential users of electric current to meet the requirements of the REA for a loan. With the money problem out of the way, the people of Tangier tvere now ready to tackle the more difficult problem of construction. This island toivn is made up practically of sand, spiny shrubs and trees. The houses, stores, church and schoolhouse occupy the narrow strip of solid ground along the three habitable ridges. So building space ivas limited. limit-ed. A firm foundation, however, ivas a must for their future power plant. For that foundation they drove dozens of piles, poured cement by the ton, hauled tons of sand from the beach, wheeled load after load of cinder blocks and other building materials brought from the mainland on boats. Hauling all this stuff in ivheelbarroivs and pushcarts was a long, hard business. The toicn iur- nished a tractor and the co-op a trailer. The job was bossed by an experienced ex-perienced builder w h o trained young, returned servicemen to do the work. By the time the plant lias completed, a young G.I. had been trained to operate it. The electrical energy that flows over the aires from Tangier's locally lo-cally built cinder block structure means much more than lights on the once dark streets of an island community. Electricity makes possible refrigeration for seafood, Tangier's great source of livelihood. It makes electric ranges available to people who formerly had to haul their fuel from the mainland main-land in uheelbarrows and pushcarts. Besides light and power right now for streets and public bxiildings, neic comforts and conveniences for Tangier and Smith Island homes, electrification has brought to the, people peo-ple of these two towns a nexv feeling of self-confidence a justified faith in themselves that the tuo communities can have practically anything they ivant if they are willing to plan and ivork together for it. |