The weather during January and February in 1908 was cold enough that record amounts of ice were harvested in Willimantic.  Even though the city of Willimantic had not granted ice harvesting rights at the pumping station  to anyone, Elm Farm Milk Company had built a 20,000 ton capacity ice house to compete with the local Ayer and Eaton ice houses and all three were filled to capacity. Thus it was felt that prices would be reasonable. The same cold weather in 1909 and 1910  led to a bountiful ice harvests. The three main dealers’ ice houses were full and several smaller ice houses such as the 3,000 ton ice house at the Ash Street milk depot were full. People now began to hope that the price of ice throughout the summer months would remain low.  Mayor Dunn enforced that hope by saying that if dealers did not lower their 1910 prices, he would, “send a special message to the Common Council suggesting that the city establish a municipal ice plant”.  Things went well until 1912 when the two local icemen raised their prices and said that they would be selling “no more five cent pieces of ice”. They had originally told customers that they could have all the ice they wanted but now claimed that supplies were low. It was reported that Willimantic citizens were “indignant” over the action of the ice dealers since there was such a large crop of ice harvested the previous winter. And so in May, 1912, the Board of Aldermen adopted a resolution instructing the City Water Committee to harvest ice at the city reservoir that coming winter and to sell it in accordance with the State’s “Municipal Ice Plant Act”. In February, 1913 the Water Committee followed through and began the harvesting and storage of ice at the pumping station. Citizens were “jubilant”. The city harvest would now be in addition to the harvests of the Ayers and Eaton ice houses. The city did not expect to make a profit and would sell its ice to independent peddlers who would go from house to house and sell more cheaply than what people had been paying. “The aim of the entire thing (was) to make it possible for the people of the city to get ice at a moderate cost and not be subject to the prices agreed upon by the two dealers who supply the Willimantic trade”. Businessmen who had already been told by the private dealers that they could not afford to sell ice pieces for less than ten cents now were told the reason for the overall increase was the cost of feeding the horses and repairs to the ice wagons. In the meantime, the city had completed building an ice shed at the Pumping Station and by the end of February, 1913, the city had harvested 1100 tons of ice. The Alderman knew that this would not go far in supplying the entire city and therefore stated their intention to use the supply to benefit families. It was decided that, “when the city sells its ice (it) shall limit the buyer to certain restrictions in disposing of the ice. For instance, ice would be sold to families only. In this way the ice would go further and would benefit more people. The city contracted with, “Delage and Girouard who peddled it and in addition to that, the city siad what the retail price to the consumers should be”. As a result, residents paind 30 cents per hundredweight, a savings of 20 cents a hundred. The only people objecting to the sale of municipal ice were some local businessmen who opposed the city’s going up against the local dealers. And, as one newspaper article mentioned, “There are some peanut politicians who are trying to make political capital out of the affair...saying that the movement for municipal control of the ice business was nothing more than to seek glory for a particular party or individual”. And so the stage was set for a special city meeting where residents would vote on whether or not Willimantic would become a “major player” in the ice business.

The photo shows employees at Eaton's Ice House, Mansfield, CT