| On August 27, 1938, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Humboldt adopted a resolution authorizing the city to issue and sell bonds in the amount of $85,000 to acquire the electric company from West Tennessee Power and Light. The resolution also called for an election to be held on September 23, 1938, to determine the will and wishes of the legally qualified voters of the city regarding the issue and sale of these bonds. The election results were 423 for, and 26 against. An ordinance was then passed on final reading on November 21, 1938, and later amended with a final reading on December 29, 1938. The amendment set the interest rate at 3 1/4% and on January 10, 1939, Humboldt officially became a municipally owned distributor of TVA electricity. |
| Howard J. (Jacob) Foltz was mayor. The aldermen were J.W. McGlathery, Maxwell Senter, L.P. Kimbrough, J. Paul Craddock, and W.E. Leath. Other city officials included Police Chief, V.L. Pierce; Fire Chief, T.C. Stehr; City Attorney, L.S. Adams; and City Treasurer, G.E. McDearmon.
Mr. Paul T. Howe, manager of West Tennessee Power and Light Company for 13 years, received a letter dated January 5, 1939, from Mayor Foltz informing him that he had been selected by the Board to be the superintendent of the city-owned electric system. Mr. Howe’s salary was set at $200.00 a month. The water department would remain under Mayor Foltz, but was to be consolidated later with the electric company.
The standard residential charge for electricity in 1939 was approximately $9.00 for 1,000 kWh, or less than a penny per kWh. Today that cost is approximately $60.00, or 6.0 cents per kWh. In addition to the regular rates, an amortization charge was added to cover the cost of paying back the bond issue. The charge was a hefty one cent per kWh for the first 100 kWh used per month, such charge to be not less that 25 cents nor more than one dollar per customer, per month. The amortization charge was dropped in the early ‘40s because the system was experiencing growth and was able to meet the bond payments with normal revenues.
Statistical data from 1939 shows 2,550,439 kWh sold with revenues of $50,233.74. In 1940 the totals increased to 2,830,110 kWh with revenues of $57,596.41. These were increases of 10.97% for kWh and 14.6% for revenues, according to the records. For 2004 the totals are nearly 225 million kWh with revenues of approximately $12.5 million.
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Our office located at:
207 South 13th Avenue
Humboldt, TN 38343
731/784-9212
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