Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-01-09
Manager Somerset Farmers
Cooperative Telephone
Company Gives Report


Mrs. ChaIes French Smith who was
elected in April to take the place OF
Manager of the Somerset Farmers
CO. Operative Telephone Company.
taking the place Of Archie III. Dam
forth who died on February 26th..
gave a comprehensive and pleasing
report Of the nine months which he
had been manager at tie annual
meeting held in Norridewock Monday
afternoon.
The following Is the financial state
ment and few extracts from Mana
ger Smiths report which viii be OF
special interest to the stockholders
who were unable to attend the meet
ing. Since the last meeting when
the books were closed ON December
goth the company has collected and
turned over to the treasurer the sum
Of $19,30s.22 which is $624.e2 more
than last year. OF this amount slG.-
2S815 was for assessments. this is
s322.60 more than last year and ST.
1854 for tolls which Is S227.60 more
than last year. The baalnce was for
shares. material and supplies sold to
subscribers.
There Is due the company on the
day OF the annual meeting sl923.33
on the subscribers ledger and ,s701.26
on the general ledger, making n total
of $262459. This amount is $l3S2.25
less than last year. Old accounts on
the ledger have been decreased by
s566.66 against s273.1S for last year.
Special effort has Deen made to re-
duce delinquent accounts which when
taken over by manager Smith
amounted TO S27663S. including 1855
Hat ,,1.,
only 81 names with total of S34S.93.
OF this there are but seven who are
still on the line, there are additional
delinquents each quarter, but when
the assessment cards for this quar-
ter are sent out there will be only
81 subscribers who are over two
quarters In areas, for n total amount
of $S52.39. The liabilities for 1923
are $167.50 which is mostly for rents
due January LIST.
Mr.. Smith paid q tribute of ap-
probation to the expert lineman and
repairman Arthur Savage who knew
where every line ran and where near
lv every subscriber lived and also to
Mrs. Pcarle Brophey, the efficient
bookkeepGr. The amount for linemen
las been reduced by $7SS,S7 which is
due to the fact that Manager Smith
has put in over half of his time doing
line work.
In April the extremely high water
caused considerable damage and on
August 21st a heavy wind storm
caused over fifty crosses and broken
wires over the whole system. Mr..
Smith went carefully over many Of
the repairs which have been made in
pole lines and switch boards and etc.
In going over the lines for the first
time a practice was made of calling
at every telephone and repairing
them where there was need and found
much trouble due to dead batteries
and the company has used thirteen
barrels OF them during the year.
TO give better idea of what had
been done during the year Mr.. Smith
mentioned the following material
used. lTia miles of iron wire. 1925
batteries. $50 brackets. 500 insulators.
ii 900 feet OF twisted pair outside
wire, 1900 feet twisted pair inside
wire, $50 crossarms. ITO poles and
many miscellaneous items. The com.
pany now owns over 500 miles of
pole line and 100 miles of wire and
one lineman and Mr. Smith have COW
cred this and done their hest to keep
the whole system in working order.
They have used 800 gallons OF gas
and driven the truck between 10000
and $1,000 miles.
The first OF May the opera tors
made count OF all calls for three
days with the following results: aver
age daily calls excluding holidays
were Skowhegan, 573; Scion, $40;
North Arson. 544; Bingham, 3I1;
Madison. 2S9; Canaan, 2S2; New
Portland. 2G1; Norridgewock. 2i6;
Caratunk. ia: Starks. 1903: Fairfield
Center. ~: Athens. 80. Which makes
an average of 3417 calls per day and
this makes over 1.050,000 calls Yer
year excluding Sundays and the holi-
days, which proves that the business
of the company has made a consid
cradle increase.
Miss Eleanor Williams. daughter
of I.aforrest {. Williams. is u SUR
gical patient at the Kennebec Valley
hospital having been operated upon
by DR.. George F.. Young assisted by