Tanks for the Memories: The evolution of water storage on the island
BY KAREN GRACE
The late Capt. Fred Futch once said that although many people say the biggest change to the island came from the building of the bridge, he thought it was the formation of the water company that was the greatest impetus for the development that followed. Before 1968 and the Gasparilla Island Water Association, water came from wells or from rain stored in tanks and cisterns or was brought in tank cars by rail.
As early as 1914, it was reported that both The Gasparilla Inn and the train terminal had a “problem with water that was acute, as none of the artesian wells, some of which are down 1200 feet, had yielded fresh water.” The suggested solution was to bring water from a stream near Platt, Florida, by rail car. This continued into the 1930s, when shallow wells yielded sufficient water.
Milton Bell, a member of a Port Boca Grande family, remembers that there was a large tank on the porch of his house that stored rainwater collected from the roof. This rainwater was clean and drinkable if the tank was scrubbed periodically with Spic and Span. Bell also remembers a high gravity tank by the Power Plant (now a Boca Bay facility) that was filled with water from the upper Peace River, which train cars brought to the Port for loading onto visiting ships, but Bell himself thought this water undrinkable. The Power Plant also had a desalinization process that allowed it to use water from Charlotte Harbor in the operation of its equipment. While he tasted water from many Island wells, he found much of it had an odd taste and smell. Sanitation required septic systems, although sometimes just an underground pipe that ran into the Gulf sufficed.
Betsy Fugate Joiner’s girlhood home had a cistern underneath its foundation to collect rainwater. Her father, Delmar Fugate, also built a 75,000-gallon cistern under the Pink Elephant’s package liquor store. Today, that cistern is a wine cellar below the private dining room. In an old newspaper article, Delmar noted that the cistern had to be cleaned and whitewashed annually. Betsy also remembers that Fugate’s had a cistern under the warehouse area at the back of the store. Her grandparents had a rainwater tank at their house on Banyan Street, and Betsy believes this was the common way that most homes collected water. She explains that cisterns were underground, and rainwater tanks were above ground. She also comments that rainwater was wonderful for washing her hair. Well water, Betsy believes, was most often used for watering yards.
The Boca Grande Woman’s Club played a major role in the creation of a water company. This was an ambitious and controversial project—controversial because some residents felt that this was a prelude to greater development and might attract “less desirable” persons to live on the island. But Catherine Gilbert, President of the Woman’s Club, her sister Leilia Slotterbeck, Laura Sprague, and other Woman’s Club members persisted. They recruited Carey Johnson, a lifetime Island resident and senior harbor pilot as well as a highly respected citizen, to serve as Chairman of the Gasparilla Island Water Association.
The women also discovered that Sanibel and Captiva had built their public water systems through loans from the Farmers Home Administration, and that fishermen were qualified to petition for a loan. They gained the support of the Seaboard Railroad, which needed water to supply ships that called at Port Boca Grande. Seaboard provided legal and office services that helped with the paperwork required for the loan. Woman’s Club members went door-to-door to explain the program. They served refreshments at meetings of the Water Association, to which all residents were invited. There was no local newspaper, so these activities were critical to providing the public with accurate information.
In September 1966, the drive for subscribers to the new water company began. The cost per household subscription was $60. A payment system was instituted for those who wished to pay overtime. The FHA tentatively approved a loan for $538,400 and the Water Association gained the needed 400 subscribers by November.
Trisha Lowe remembers that by the mid-1970s, when she lived on Lee Avenue, the fee to subscribe was going to increase to $330, and her two uncles, Darrell Polk and Tommy Cost, told her to apply for the hookup immediately. Darrell Polk was general manager of the GIWA for 20 years. Tricia’s step-grandparents had a cistern at their Palm Avenue home that may still be there.
In March 1967, $10,000 of federal money was received for test wells. In April, the Association secured property off-island between Placida and El Jobean for a well field, and on May 20 on-island acres were acquired for water storage and a pump room. By autumn, work was underway on the 240,000-gallon storage unit and a plant on-island, plus a 125,000-gallon treatment plant on the mainland. Trisha tells that during construction on the Island, trailers were set up for those building the facilities by Third Street and West Railroad, where the Third Street Café/Mimi’s were recently located. By late July 1968, Gasparilla Island Water Association water was running from Boca Grande taps.
The Woman’s Club won national recognition from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in its Community Improvement Project competition. The Boca Grande Woman’s Club submission notes that the water association project “had as its immediate goal the development of a water supply system for the island’s residents.
Equally important, however, was the intangible goal of bringing about wider civic participation in the community.”
