By the summer of 1913, one of the hottest issues in Willimantic was ICE! The first refrigerator was produced and sold in 1913 but it was not until the 1920s that refrigerators became a common household item. People depended upon ice deliveries and in Willimantic and the two principal suppliers of ice were Eaton of Mansfield and Ayer, which was on Pleasant Street at the Lebanon line. Due to public outcry over the rising cost of ice, by 1913, Willimantic began a municipal ice business and harvested ice near the Pumping Station. But let’s go back a few years and, through newspaper stories, get an idea of how important ice was. During the winters, newspaper articles would keep residents regularly apprised of the conditions which would affect the price of the following summer’s ice. In December, 1905, residents were told that, “(I)ce in the ponds is getting to a thickness which gives the icemen hopes that they can begin cutting for storage purposes pretty soon. Ayer is getting fine ice, six inches thick...Eaton has ice on his pond in Mansfield nine inches thick already”. Regardless of conditions, however, residents were more interested in the cost of the ice and regularly complained about the prices. By 1907, Mayor Daniel Dunn proposed a bill that would authorize the city to begin cutting and harvesting ice at the Pumping Station. Strong opposition naturally came from local icemen who attended the meeting during which the bill was discussed. “Iceman Eaton” had been going around with a petition and attempting to get signatures from people who opposed the bill and came to the meeting with a long list of names, some of which were the leading businessmen of the city. “Iceman Ayer” was also working to garner opposition to the bill. Mayor Dunn entered the fray and said that he would, “fight for the bill to the last ditch” and began circulating his own petition. Within two hours, over one hundred signatures were collected. Despite the Mayor’s efforts, the bill did not pass. But Dunn was not ready to give up and tried another tactic. In February, 1908, the Board of Aldermen met and discussed a Water Committee proposal to allow the Elm Farm Milk Company of Boston to have the privilege of harvesting ice at the pumping station.  Eventually, the decision was to not grant the privilege due to fears of contaminating the water supply if this “dangerous usage” were allowed. Not ready to give up, Alderman-at-Large Dawson then introduced a resolution authorizing a committee to be appointed by the Mayor to “take up the matter again and empowering it to contract with the Elm Farm Milk Company as it should see fit”. Other Aldermen took exception to this and so the matter was turned over to Corporation Counsel Melony who stated that, under the revised City Charter, the city had the right to grant the privilege. The resolution to appoint a committee was put to a vote and carried three to two and Mayor Dunn immediately appointed a special committee. Within days of this meeting, the Elm Farm Milk Company announced that it had contracted to harves a large supply of ice at Bean’s Pond near Bingham’s Bridge. An agent from the company came to Willimantic to hire teams and men to work on the hrvesting. In a sense, this relieved the Board of Alderman from having to make a decision regarding the Pumping Station privilege. The Water Committee then restated its fear of contamination since the city had already been advised by the state Board of Health that the Water Committee should, “better the conditions at (the Pumping Station) where  privies emptied into the water supply”. And so it was generally felt that the city had gotten out of a “mess” by not granting a harvest privilege.  For the time being, the city would stay out of the ice business. (Part 2 next week). This photo shows Ayer's Ice House