Chadwick Lake

New York

A lake became a town's water supply by about a hundred votes, after neighbors argued that piped water would end the countryside.

historicalengineeringhiking

In February of 1962, the Town of Newburgh voted on whether to buy a private lake and turn it into a reservoir. The count came in at nine hundred and eighty-seven in favor, eight hundred and eighty-one against. Thirty-two ballots were thrown out. That thin margin decided the water supply for the whole town. The council itself had been unanimous, five to nothing. But opponents gathered enough signatures to force the question to a public vote. Their argument was not really about plumbing. They said the town was still too rural to need a central water supply, and that if nobody ever built one, the countryside would stay countryside forever. They also thought the price was outrageous. The family that owned the lake first asked a million dollars, came down to eight hundred and fifty thousand, and settled for seven hundred and seventy-five thousand for four hundred and twenty-seven acres. Neighboring landowners sold another eighteen acres for fifteen thousand more.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
in the vote taken on February 26, 1962, the purchase was approved by a vote of only 987 to 881 with 32 void ballots

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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