The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-09-21
CITY HEAT WAS A
POPULAR SUBJECT
THE PAST WEEK WAS COLD AND
EVERYBODY WITH CITY HEAT
PLANTS NEARLY FRoZE
SOMETHING WAS RADICALLY WRONG
Consumers Considerably Wrought Up
Over the Situation and Ask
Why No Heat.

There has been considerable justified
kicking the past week over the fact
that the city heating plant was out of
commission and a large number Of peo-
pie in the hotels, stores, banks and
offices, that had no other method of
heating, suffered as a result.
The small kerosene stove was in
great demand and if our hardware
stores had been supplied they could
have sold dozens of them. The Farm
ers National Bank put up a stove and
similar means was resorted to by
others. There was many a smothered
cuss word used and threats of private
heating plants going in. The public
schools were closed and the Register
Office nearly went out of business.
OF course the biggest kick was regis
tered by parents of children hat had
to sit in the cold study room. This
effected a large part of the city's popu-
lation and the murmur that went up
could be heard ever INTO the Register
Office.
knowing that the city had beer to a
large expense, the past year, in install
ing a new and up-to-date engine and a
battery of new boilers and charging
the plant generally, and in view Of the
desperate situation the Register has
sought to arrive at some conclusion in
regard to what many have decided was
an uncalled for situation.
With this end in view a Register re-
porter sought an interview with the
mayor. superintendent of water and
heat and the contractor who had
charge of connecting the new boilers
and they are all practically agreed that
no n in particular is to blame and
we have yet to discover who is respon-
sibIe.
Mr.. Ray said that after the new ma
chinery was set in the spring it was
discovered hat the foundation to the
big engine had been laid on a bed Of
quick sand and it tool a long time to
reinforce this foundation so that the
engine could be operated with safety.
Then he, MI. Ray, was taken sick and
good steam filters were hard to find.
Mr.. Ray stated that he intended to
do the work himself last winter but the
work of installing the new machinery
dragged SO that he could not get to 1t.
Mayor Mathews says that material was
hard to get, which is no doubt true.
Superintendent Morton says that the
public schools could not have had the
necessary heat even though the city
had been able to supply it. There were
a number of radiators out and the
pipes disconnected so that there was
no chance to get steam through the
buildings.
The Register reporter is told on good
authority that several new floors hal
to be laid in one of the school build
ings and, while the board had all sum-
mer to do it in, it a left until within
a few days before school opened and
then rushed to completion. AS a con-
sequence the heat radiators that had
been disconnected were not coupled up
when the cold spell came on. No con-
n~ection, no vacuum, no heat, nobody TO
blame.
A Register reporter met a business
man coming from the power plant yes
terday morning and he said to him:
Looking for heat?" He replied that
he was and was told that the heat had
been turned on already. 9" know it,"
the business man replied, but l don't
get any of it. There's a leak in the
main and don't see why in the ID
they don't fix it while it's decent wealth
er. The city has had all summer and
it will turn cold again in a few days
and Wen freeze up"
The reporter reminded him of the
Irishman who had a leaky roof and
when asked why he didn't :fx it said.
when its foine weather Oh don't need
it and when the weather is bad OF
can't" He then started for the court
house humming that little ditty
What's the use of Dreaming?