Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1939-10-18
Near $4,000 Miles Rural
Electric Lines In State
Continued From Page One)


behind public utilities in construc-
ton of lines, but this year the REA
has allocated millions to North Car
DINA construction and on a basis Of
the figures issued today the gap be-
tween utility rural lines and those
Of the REA is rapidly being closed.
For instance, Of the 1886 miles
completed since July l, an even
thousand miles is estimated by the
State authority to have been under
sponsorship Of the Federal REA and
built by cooperatives over the State.
And while the public utilities have
added 1870 customers since July l
the coops have extended service to an
additional 1926 customers.
In tabular form the miles of line
for the state, as Of July l, 1889 and
October II follows:
Agency Built Building Auth.
Public Utilities
July l 7,550.98 270.78 417.18
Oct. IT,. 7,929.94 255.30 253.17
municipalities Both
dates il. 1,118.00 HOO $3.50
July l :. 1,74O.1O 2,577oo 654.6O
Ocl. H.. Z,IfU.lO 0IrOO l,9oo.OO
July 1..1o,788.o4 2.85a.78 1.:oo.38
Oct II. IL ,788.O4 1,843.3O 2,245. IS
]. M. Granger, engineer for the
state R. E. A. pointed out that there
las undoubtedly been some change
in the status Of lines built, building
and authorized by municipalities, but
added that he has received no Of
fetal notification Of any such chan
ges and has no authentic Informal
lion from any other sources which
would justify his changing the fig
ures Of his July l report.
Municipalities are not required by
law to report to anyone their &C
tivities and it is often very difficult
to obtain even approximately &C
curate information regarding their
operations. This has become even
more difficult since there has been
much talk about counties taxing the
rural lines built and operated by
municipalities.
Mr.. Granger also said that chang
d figures on the status of federally-
sponsored lines are the result Of best
-StimateS Of unofficial, but reliable
information The Federal REA does
not report its activities to the state
lgency, he said, and since establish
nent Of the REA in 1885 there has
zen only one occasion on which the
Federal unit made any definite state
lent Of the status Of its operations
1 North Carolina
On the whole, however, the State
Authority is satisfied that figures
,iven in today's report are reliable
md approximately correct
A study Of the figures shows that
within the past two years the lines
of Federally-backed cooperatives
nave risen in proportion to public
Utilities lines from approximately
one to five to about three to four,
when all lines built, building and
authorized are considered. Actually
built, the public utilities still lead
something like three to one.
At the present rate Of progress the
REA lines will catch up with those
of the utilities within the next year
perhaps; but there is definite op-
inion in the State REA that the pc
riod of wide and easy extension of
lines is nearing a close. The richest
rural sections have already been SER
we'd with electricity and from now on
the drive for progress and expansion
will be. much more difficult, it is
thought.
Recently Director Dudley Bagley
announced intensified efforts to help
the "ten worst counties" from the
standpoint of rural electrification but
no definite results have been report