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Southwick Electric Company (rough draft)
The newly incorporated Southwick Electric Company appeared before the Massachusetts State Board of Gas and Electric Light Commission in Boston on June 28, 1915, to gain approval to issue 600 shares of capital stock valued at $6,000. Southwick Electric planned to use the money generated from its stock offering to build a power station near the Westfield/Southwick town line, run lines to the town center, and purchase equipment to supply street lighting and electricity to Southwick businesses.
The new company negotiated with the Westfield Light Company, from which it would get either electricity or power.
The company's officers were:
Raymond M. Fletcher, president
Frank B. Gladwin, treasurer
William Fletcher, director
Harry B. Putnam, director
During a special town meeting in August, Southwick voters approved installing street lights and authorized selectmen to contract with the Southwick Electric Light Company to provide electricity for them. (The Town held a hearing in October to determine the location of the street light poles.)
Plans changed, and the company sought bids to construct a concrete powerhouse with a 100-horsepower engine near Fletcher's Mill.
Voters approve the sale of the Southwick Municipal Light Department. The sale of the plant, built in 1919, would help pay some of the debt the Town acquired from the construction of Consolidated School and the installation of some water mains.
After gaining approval from the state, Lee Electric Company purchased the Southwick Electric Company's plants for $50,000; the deed transfer occurred on August 11, 1931. (Lee Electric Company surveyed the Southwick Electric Company's service area in October.)
Raymond M. Fletcher founded the Fletcher Electric Company in Southwick that same year.
Lee Electric refused to cross the state line, leaving Southwick Electric's Suffield, Connecticut customers in the dark as the Northern Connecticut Power Company, citing a lack of return on investment, declined to spend the money needed to bring power to such a small amount of homes. Even if they did, the Great Depression had rendered the rates of major utility companies unaffordable for many rural residents, prompting Fletcher to step in and provide electricity on a small scale to those living along Congamond Lake, primarily in Suffield. As the area's population grew, so did Fletcher Electric, which had about 30 customers in the 1930s. (Northern Connecticut Power's nearest lines were seven miles from Fletcher's service area.)
Fletcher Electric originally purchased its power from Pittsfield Electric Light Company. In the summer, Fletcher needed about 5,000 kilowatt hours each month to serve its customers effectively.
As part of the New Deal, the United States Congress passed new legislation regulating utility companies, sending it to the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signature in 1935. A provision in the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA), also known as the Wheeler-Rayburn Act, would automatically put utility companies operating interstate business under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) control. The bill allowed the SEC to regulate, license, and break up electric utility holding companies as it limited companies to operate in a single state. Because the bill took effect immediately after the president's signing, many interstate utility companies cut lines that crossed state lines as soon as it passed Congress. (Roosevelt signed the bill on August 26, 1935.)
Pittsfield Electric Light said the PUHCA did not impact them because they sell power to Fletcher, based in Southwick, who then transmits it across the state line using its own power lines. Pittsfield Electric maintained that it has no jurisdiction over what its customers do with the power it supplies. (Fletcher said they were unaware of the legislation until a news outlet contacted them.)
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| Virginia (billing customers) |
An ice storm knocked out power around Congamond Lake in December 1973. Fletcher Electric had power restored within two to three hours, while customers of the major utility companies went without power for days. (Fletcher customer John Cebula said he lost power for three hours, while a Connecticut Light and Power customer just down the road waited six days. Cebula also noted that during the great flood of '55, he was without power for two days. Some big utility companies' customers waited for 15 days.)
Fletcher Electric sourced its electricity from the Western Massachusetts Electric Company and operated without the oversight of the Connecticut Public Utilities Control Authority (PUCA) until 1977. The PUCA claimed that it only became aware of Fletcher's existence when a customer complained about poor service and increased rates, leading to the discovery of the company's unregulated operation. (Unhappy customers in Connecticut were reluctant to call Fletcher Electric directly due to expensive long-distance phone charges. The PUCA rejected the customer's complaint.)
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| Alan Fletcher, circa 1970 |
Even though Fletcher Electric now fell under the oversight of the PUCA, it remained a small family operation. However, extensive regulations from the State of Connecticut heavily burdened the small utility company, forcing it to raise rates when Fletcher found themselves buried in a mountain of paperwork. Thanks to government red tape, Roderick washed his hands of the operation, turning it over to his sons, Alan (president) and Mark (equal partner).
The state authority granted Fletcher Electric's request to raise its rates by 19% in 1980, bringing in approximately $19,000 in additional annual revenue. They also raised their minimum from $4.30 to $5.00. That year, Fletcher had 295 year-round customers: 286 residential, six commercial, and three agricultural. Their Massachusetts customers were seasonal.
The following year, Fletcher filed a request to raise rates by 6.6, generating an estimated $8,768 more per year. However, the state only approved an increase in revenue by $8,348. In their application, Fletcher Electric reported an annual income of $133,076. At the time, the company served about 300 customers, many of whom opposed the increase. One of those customers, Llyod Chapman, said his electric bill was about $53 (even though he used kerosene lamps and a wood stove for cooking and heating.) Other customers complained about getting shocks when touching their sink faucets or water pipes.
In 1986, the PUCA ordered Alan Fletcher, then president of the one-man Fletcher Electric Light Company, to form a customer advisory board to improve customer communication after being accused of not informing customers about rate issues and the resulting public hearings. In its order, the PUCA mandated that Fletcher assemble the board by October 22.
Fletcher Electric customers had roughly 37% higher bills than Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) customers in Suffield. If a Fletcher customer used 500 kilowatts a month, it would cost them about $78. Instead of implementing a rate hike all at once, a push was being made to force Fletcher to phase in a 30% increase over ten years, something Fletcher vehemently opposed. (CL&P was a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities.)
After years of negotiation, CL&P and Fletcher Electric filed a joint application with the PUCA in 1992, allowing CL&P to absorb Fletcher for $575,000. In addition to agreeing on a price, the companies needed to resolve other issues, like easements, which Fletcher did not have. (Fletcher estimated itself worth $800,000, but CP&L valued it at $85,000.)
CL&P officially took over Fletcher Electric on October 27, 1992.
Had the deal not gone through, the State of Connecticut contemplated using a 1987 law that allowed them to revoke the franchise of small utilities that could not offer competitive rates.
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
Raymond Mills Fletcher: 10/1/1885 - 5/24/1969.
Ethel (Wilcutt) Fletcher: 5/13/1885 - 8/1987.
Roderick Harwood Fletcher: 3/15/1914 - 10/5/2013.
Raymond Fletcher:
Virginia (Ferrier) Fletcher: 7/1/1926 - 7/15/2014.
Alan F. Fletcher: 12/14/1951 -
Mark S. Fletcher: 9/11/1953 -
Donald H. Fletcher:
Raymond (founder) Wife Ethel, Son Roderick, Raymond "Bud", William, and Donald.
Roderick - Wife Virginia - Sons Mark and Alan.
Raymond was the bookkeeper for his father's famous grist mill. Roderick was a rural route carrier.
There are some discrepancies regarding the rate increase in 1980. But the dollar figure is correct.
Fletcher had 291 customers in Suffield in 1977, one in Southwick.
Fletcher Electric raised rates by 12% in 1979 and 30% in 1986. *Some reports say 292 Connecticut customers, but 291 appears correct. Some sources say Fletcher grew to 297 customers at one point.
In 1934, Fletcher brought in a gross of about $1,200.
Connecticut Light and Power was established in 1917.
Southwick Electric announced a rate reduction of one cent per kilowatt hour for electric light users and a half-cent for electric power consumers, effective March 1, 1930.
Roderick Fletcher saved two fishermen from drowning in Congamond on July 24, 1949. One of the three men in the boat drowned. None of the men could swim. The boat caught fire when a lantern overturned. It's believed that one of the men reeled in an eel - that hit the lantern. (See Congamonster Victims)
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