George Taylor Evans
(1898-1981)
The following article was published in the Poland Press Newspaper and was dated September 16, 1954. Its author, Mr. Evans, started with the Struthers water company after serving in the US Navy in 1918. In the 1940’s he became president of 5 Ohio water companies located in Poland, Circleville, Massillon, Marysville, and Washington Court House. Water plants at Mentor and Geneva, Ohio were added in the mid-1950s. Mr. Evans was active in the company until his death at the age of 83. He, his wife Mary, and son William, are buried in the Riverside Cemetery. They were active members of the Poland Presbyterian Church. Here Mr. Evans writes about the Struthers-Poland Water Treatment Plant, which is now called Aqua Ohio.
Decisions Made in 1916 pays
Poland Area Rich Dividends
In Assured Water Supplies
By G. Taylor Evans
(President, Ohio Water Service Co.)
distributed through nearly 100 miles of pipe lines from four to 36 inch in diameter, is something that our customers, as well as ourselves, can be proud of. It was a fortunate decision for Poland that was made in 1916 by the Mahoning Valley Water Co., predecessor of Ohio Water Service Co. (OWS), to locate the new water supply for Struthers on Burgess Creek. It must be remembered that the growing steel industry had caused Struthers (City) to undergo a rapid growth and the company was faced with finding and developing a new domestic water supply for the Struthers Area. Up until that time Struthers had been receiving untreated water from the industrial water supply (Lake Hamilton) of the company and Poland had no public water supply.
The only supply in this area was from individual wells. So, Burgess Lake on Pittsburgh Road and a little later the filter plant at that location came into being and this new supply was carried by a large pipe line through Poland Village and connected to the distribution system for Struthers in the vicinity of Youngstown Rd. and Elm Street.
With this supply running through Main St. in the village it was no time until the nearby side streets were served and the very extensive water system we now have in the Poland area came into being….in addition to this domestic plant of the company we also operate an industrial plant which supplies water to Mahoning Valley industry. This, in fact, was the beginning of our company in 1905.
The first dam, built in 1905, was Lake Hamilton, well known by all readers of the Press. There followed in order: Pine Lake, 1911; Beaver Lake, 1916; Liberty Lake,1916; McKelvey Lake, 1925, Girard Lake, 1931; and Lake Evans, 1948. I believe that the growth of the company from the one dam and untreated domestic water in 1905 to the present extensive development with a daily capacity in total of about 30 million gallons in untreated industrial water and two million gallons plus of filtered water
We have just recently placed in service our new filter plant (at Burgess Lake) which more than doubles our previous capacity for domestic service. About three years ago we built a 1 million gallon standpipe near the center of the Poland-Boardman Township area….in closing this brief story I would like to remind the readers that it is “water service” and not “water” that he is really buying from us and that is our biggest cost in carrying out our responsibility…..we do our best and our many employees do their best to furnish uninterrupted and unlimited service. We are proud to have a part in the daily lives of the folks in this, the greatest “home and work” area of our great country.