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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1907 | 4 |
| 1908 | 14 |
| 1909 | 24 |
| 1910 | 8 |
50 stories matching system
- Newport Money Builds a Water System for a Brand-New Town
Newport investors incorporated the Ione Water Power Co. to pipe Cedar Creek water into Ione, a private utility bet on a townsite still being born.
- Newport Switches On Its Electric Night
After months of waiting on parts, the town's new $5,000 street-lighting system blazes to life — eight 2,000-candlepower arc lights and 26 tungsten incandescents, billed to the city at $82.50 a month.
- Newport's Telephone Revolution: A 600-Line Exchange Built for Growth
A Wisconsin telephone man bought out the old exchange, discarded it, and spent $11,000 to give Newport one of the most modern switchboards in the Northwest.
- Newport's Cesspool Crisis Made a Sewer System the Town's Biggest Need
With refuse in the streets and an epidemic feared, the Newport Miner backed a bond-financed sewerage plan in 1909.
- A 25-Year Grip on Ione’s Water
Over a rival’s protest, Stevens County commissioners handed the Ione Water & Light Co. a quarter-century franchise to lay water mains through town—with a clause letting Ione buy the system out if it ever incorporated.
- Who Owns the Water? Marcus Grants 25-Year Private Franchise
Stevens County commissioners hand a sweeping water system monopoly to a group of investors, with a two-year deadline to build or lose the right.
- Dynamite and an Empty Water Tank: Springdale Burns
A noon fire that began in a meat company smokehouse destroyed nearly every store in Springdale, exposing a water system that had been broken for a week.
- Cusick’s New Water Works
A local entrepreneur brings modern infrastructure to a growing valley town.
- Newport's Fire Alarm Was a Church Bell—Until It Moved
When the Congregational church bell left its old belfry, Newport lost the only way to sound a fire alarm. A telephone company offered a $100 fix.
- Newport Turns On the Lights
The Northern Idaho Montana Power Co. is wiring 2,500-candlepower arc lights and tungsten incandescents at intersections across Newport—a $4,500 bet on the town's future.
- Newport Weighs a Fifty-Year Electric Franchise
The Commercial Club hears that the Northern Electric Co. and Chicago's H. M. Byllesby Co. plan an $85,000 light-and-power system, and calls citizens to City Hall before the council vote.
- The $210,000 Typo That Could Decide Who Owns Yakima's Water
A spelling dispute over 'affect' versus 'effect' in a North Yakima water franchise threatens to hand the city a fortune—or leave it at the company's mercy.
- New Owner, New Wires: Newport Telephone Service Gets an Upgrade
After selling the local telephone line to Mr. Anderson, Newport sees longer hours and a new central office planned for the Antler Hotel's former sample room.
- A Mill That Never Sleeps: Dalkena Runs Day and Night
Newport's Dalkena Lumber Co. keeps roughly 100 men working around the clock, outfits its yards with electric light, and readies a new gasoline tug for the river.
- Newport Council Cracks Down on Saloons—and Swears In a New Clerk
The city council passes a strict liquor ordinance, warns saloon men against Sunday trade, and fills the clerk's office after a resignation.
- Newport Left in the Dark as Town Council and Electric Company Deadlock
A standoff between the town council and Northern Electric leaves Newport without streetlights, prompting fears of crime and a possible new franchise.
- A Fifty-Year Franchise for All-Night Power
Officials from the Northern Idaho and Montana Electric Light and Power Co. toured Newport, sketched a town-wide distribution system, and asked the city council for a half-century franchise.
- The Principal Who Built Newport's High School Is Leaving
After four years, Prof. L. K. King — who organized the high school and won it State University accreditation — has been chosen from 150 applicants to superintend the Grangeville, Idaho schools.
- Railway Contractors Bet Big on Usk as Milwaukee Line Speculation Swirls
A 480-acre ranch sells for $15,500, then the Usk townsite itself changes hands, fueling talk that the new railroad will remake the Calispel Valley.
- The Water Superintendent Who Brought Down a Mayor
After the local option election, Colville's mayor fires the man whose inside knowledge of gambling and cooked books wrecked his administration — and the victors plan a clean sweep in December.
- Fifteen Years, Rate Caps and a Free Phone: Newport Bargains With the Telephone Company
The city council cut a proposed 35-year franchise down to 15, capped rates at $1.50 for a two-party line, demanded a free city phone and reserved wire space on every pole.
- Newport's Water-Land Lease Fight Heads to the Voters
Ahead of the Dec. 3, 1907, municipal election, the Citizens' Independent Party asks whether the city should spend public money to defend a controversial 99-year lease on the Carter water land.
- The Great Northern Stays: Hillyard's Railroad Shops to Grow, Quashing Talk of a Move to Newport
Great Northern surveyors lay out a quarter-million dollars' worth of new locomotive and coach shops at Hillyard — and in doing so, put to rest the rumor that the railway might pull up stakes and relocate its repair yard to Newport.
- The $35 Fee That Became $335: Insurance Commissioner Schively's Sliding Scale
Olympia investigators say J. H. Schively charged newly organized insurance companies whatever they would bear—then kept the difference. With 75 companies heard from and $8,000 in excess fees alleged, the evidence is headed to the governor.
- Seattle Breaks Ground on the Canal That Would Reshape Its Harbor
After more than fifty years of proposals, a former governor turns the first spadeful of earth on a waterway meant to join Lake Washington to Puget Sound.