COLEMAN - For some, today is a dark day for Coleman as the city officially pulls the plug on a landmark, one of the oldest city-owned power plants in Texas and the only city-owned power plant in the Big Country.  Don't worry.  Coleman won't be left in the dark.  The city will continue to buy power from AEP, as it has for several years.  Coleman Municipal Power and Light first went on line with one small generator in 1902.  In 1910, a new, red-brick building was erected just north of downtown to meet the increasing demand for electricity; that is still the site of the power plant.  The 1902 plant site was a half-mile east of downtown on Hordes Creek. 

''It was the goose that laid the golden egg,'' said Ronnie Busby of the Coleman plant.  ''It was where all the money came from.  It fed our families and schooled them.''  Busby has been superintendent of the plant for the past 18 years.  Roy McCorkle, the city manager from 1971 until he retired in 1994, agreed.  ''It was the Golden Goose, and that's what we called it,'' McCorkle said.  ''For a long time, we had a tax rate of about 5 cents (per $100 valuation), and we had a mayor back then whose main goal was to make Coleman tax-free.''  The city didn't achieve that goal, but the profits from producing electric power allowed Coleman mayors to dream.  The tax rate is now 31.1 cents, still lower than most cities in the region. 

The cost of fuel and other factors have made the old plant unprofitable.  The city can buy power cheaper than it can produce it, said City Manager Randy Whiteman.  The plant, in fact, has not produced electric power for the past three years, he added.  For those three years, the city had a contract with AEP to provide electric power to AEP if they needed it, Whiteman said.  During those three years, AEP asked for power only once, and even then, a technical problem at the Coleman plant prevented the power from being produced, he said.  ''There is no way we can compete,'' Busby said. 

Whiteman said that through attrition the number of employees at the idle plant dwindled to four.  ''That's not enough to run the plant, and it didn't make sense to hire more,'' he said.  ''It wasn't realistic anymore to think we could supply power to AEP if they asked for it.''  Three of the last four employees have found other work.  Busby will stay on for now and try to find buyers for the generating equipment.  Nobody knows what might happen to the building.  Some of the structure may have to be torn down to remove the huge, iron generators if buyers are found, Busby said.  Most of the nine generators are about 10 feet tall, 15 feet long and 5 feet wide.  The crankshaft alone on the largest generator weighs 150,000 pounds.  When the generators ran at capacity, they could heat the concrete floor of the building to 160 degrees and create enough noise to require ear protection, Busby said.

''Building a light house was first mentioned by the City Council on March 11, 1901,'' said McCorkle, who has studied the council's old, detailed minutes.  ''They're so detailed because the city secretary was paid by the word,'' he added.  In March 1902, the council hired an engineer for $132 and accepted a bid of a $7,250 to provide a 60 kilowatt-hour steam-powered dynamo.  That would have created enough power to light 600, 100 watt light bulbs for one hour. The council also bought three street lamps.  In 1904, the city bought a 90 KW unit to meet the increasing demand for electricity.  Coleman had a population of about 1,000 in 1902, but grew to more than 3,000 by 1912.  Its population was 5,127 in 2000.

At first, residents did not have electric meters, and residents were charged about 50 cents a month per light bulb.  Residents who had more than two bulbs were charged 25 cents for each extra bulb.  The power plant ran only at night, when the lights were needed.  In 1911, after the new plant had gone on line, ladies were allowed to iron on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and only between the hours of 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.  The power output of the plant was constantly upgraded, and it provided all the power for the city until 1973, when the city joined the regional power grid and began exporting power, Busby said.  The last of nine internal combustion generators was installed in 1986, he said.  Busby said that when the plant was producing at full output seven days a week, it employed nine. 

Taking the plant offline will mean little to Coleman residents in practical terms.  The city will continue to buy AEP power wholesale and redistribute it through the city-owned electric infrastructure, Whiteman said.  Customers will still pay electric bills to the city, he said.  In 1902, the Coleman City Council demanded in writing that their first electric power plant ''shall be first class in every detail.''  Most residents believe the ''Golden Goose'' met the requirements of that demand by laying golden eggs for more than a century.