Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-07-30
POWER DAM TO
SERVEAMERICUS
COMPLETED
Current To Be Turned
On At New Plant
Monday

ALBANY, July 30.-Currcnt will
be turned on at the new Flint river
dam of the Congratulations Power
company Monday mor1ing, President
Demot Shemwell, of the big utility
corporation, announces.
This announcement, II is generally
conceded, is the most important mile
stone on the road of industrial prog
ress ever reached by the maaufactur-
ing interestes and municipalities of
South Georgia ana Southeast Ala
bama, and brings to conclusion
an undertaking that required All cut
lay of nearly $2,000,0U0.
Two units Of the plant, winch viii
eventually be a four-unit hydro-e!ec-
tric plant, have been completed, or
will be completed by Monday Morn
ing, the contractors have told the
power company officials, and the
water will be sent through the wheels
with the beginning of the month OF
August. Two units are all that tie
company proposes now to operate, 1t
being estimated that these will take
care of the demand for the present.
The other two units can be equipped
and nut into ac1i6n or shor- notice,
it is stated.
Power for Americus
Immediate plans of the power
company will be to serve With lthe
new plant the same communities and
the same industries now supplied
with current from the old dam in
the Muckafoonee creek. The other
municipalities and the industrial
plants in them which are to receive
current from the new plant will be
connected at an early date. Lines
are already being put into Pelham
and Americus, Cordele and other
places which contracted for Georgia
Alabama Power company curr@:t are
soon to be tied in with the big hydo-
electric plant here. The franchise
granted the company by Americus
calls for deliv .Ty Of power tEere ~
January ] and at the indentical rate
paid by Albany consumers.
Although the water wal be sent
through the wheels at the big new
plant here Monday, official opening
of the mammoth new enterprise will
I<be delayed until about September
l, Mr.. Shemwell stated. The contrac-
tors will be given opportunity to
clear away their rubbish and the
grounds surrounding the plant will
be put in tidy shape for big party
which the Georgia-Alabama Power
company will give.
The dam which the GeOrgiaAla-
bama Power company has just COM
pleted through its contractors, the
hardaway Contracting company, is
the first ever thrown across the
Flint river throughout its entire
reaches. 1t is the fifsh liam the
Georgia-Alabama Power company has
built or acquired since it began op-
Grafton about three years ago.
Two Ohher Dams Built.
Two dams were built in the Anus
see creek at Columbia, Ala, slld one
on the Pataula creek at Fort Gaines,
Ga. Another one in the Muckafoo-
nee creek here was purchased from
the Albany Power & Manufacturing
company in January, 1919, follow
in (Which immediate announcement
was made of intention to dam the
! Flint river and erect the largest pow
er house IN this sectinn lie corr
bined power holdings OF this com
pany make it second only to the
Georgia Railway & Power company,
of Atlanta, in the matte 1f hydro
electric power generated.
Work on the dam in the Flint river,
| which is locaoed 1T Porter Shoals,
about two miles north of Albany, was
begun in the latter part of 1919, al
though much preliminary work, such
as building q SQ'1r track CT rdI'way
and a trestle across Muckafoonee
creek. was done in the summer of
that year. Early efforts were handl-
capped greatly by high water in the
river. but the contractors have stuck
nersistently to the task and are now
ready to deliver to the promoters the
completed model Of 1he greatest III
-dustrial effort ever made in South
ern Georgia.
The power plants of the Ieorgia'
Alabama Power company here, at
Fort Gaines and at Columbia will be
tied, and each plant wilt have avail
able the hydro-electric supply OF al
the others, giving the company an
available horsepower capable of de.
veloping great industries and builc
prosperity for a section.