“There Will Be Light” was the leading headline in the February 26, 1914, issue of the Ridgeway Journal. Ridgeway voters had just approved a $10,000 bond issue to build an electric light plant in the city of Ridgeway. Despite having already approved a $3000 bond to build the new city hall and jail, voters approved it with by a ratio nearly 9 to 1. The board of aldermen set to work requesting and accepting bids. In March, they purchased a plot of land from Daniel Landes in the southwest corner of the 6th Block of the Miner Addition, just east of the railroad. (From old maps, I think it would have been about where the dog pound is now, or a little east of it). They hired E. Y. Davis & Son of Albany to construct the powerhouse out of brink and tile for a cost of $897. This company also built the new city hall and jail that year as well as a new brick office building for Dr. Lake Brewer, which completed the first block of all-brick commercial buildings in Ridgeway. (Ridgeway Journal, Apr 23, 1914)
In the April 16, 1914, issue of the Journal, the Board announced they had accepted several bids for the electric plant. They purchased a Fairbanks-Morse 2-cylinder, 4 cycle 50 horsepower oil engine and a 10,000-gallon oil tank for $2,765. Westinghouse Electric provided all the electrical equipment for the building and Western Electric sold the city all the poles, streetlights, wires, cables, transformers, etc. The Board then hired Ridgeway electrician C.I. Wiley to oversee all that installation. The equipment was delayed slightly, but by August 27, the Journal reported that the light service was operational, and customers were slowly converting to the new electric light plant. By September, the service schedule was provided by the board of aldermen: the lights would go on from 5 pm to 11 pm (except Saturdays and other special days when evening entertainments needed them on longer). Morning light service started on October 1 from 5 am to sunup and “Ironing Day” service was from 8 am to 11am on Wednesdays.
