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Your Hometown Services Provider

Our History

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Our History

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Water
Electric
Streaming TV-Internet-Phone
City History
Indian Head Logo History
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Water

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In early 1889, local residents created the Wyandotte Municipal Water Utility to provide fire protection and have a convenient safe source of drinking water. Today, the municipal water utility serves over 12,000 consumers, has annual revenues of over 3.5 million and sells over 1.5 billion gallons of water annually.
Wyandotte is the only downriver community that owns and operates a potable water filtration plant. The Wyandotte Municipal Water Plant can produce up to 15 million gallons of water per day. The community's water source is the Detroit River and the treatment process consists of:
  • Screen or remove debris
  • Add alum for coagulation of suspended particles
  • Add chlorine for disinfection
  • Add phosphate for stabilization
  • Remove all suspended particles through filtration
  • Add fluoride to prevent tooth decay
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) require the annual production of a Water Quality Assurance Report to show how our water is continually kept in compliance and an excellent source of fresh water for our residents.
Our water distribution system consists of 110 miles of water mains ranging from 4 inches to 30 inches in diameter. Fire protection is provided by over 850 fire hydrants located throughout the community. The municipal water system has a 500,000 gallon elevated storage tank (water tower) and 4.5 million gallons of ground level storage for peak demand periods such as fighting fires or other emergencies.


Electric
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The Wyandotte Electric Light Company was incorporated on September 19, 1889, for the purpose of manufacturing and supplying electricity for light, heat and power.
In 1892, local residents voted to create a community owned municipal electric utility, which initially provided only street lighting. In 1896, the municipal electric utility began serving retail consumers and for a number of years the municipal electric utility and the Wyandotte Electric Light Company competed locally for consumers.
Today, Wyandotte’s municipal electric utility is one of 41 public power systems in Michigan, and one of nearly 2,000 public power systems in the United States. It serves over 12,000 consumers.
Wyandotte Municipal Services’ electric department encompasses the Power Plant production of electricity and the Transmission and Distribution (T&D) side of bringing electricity to residents and business located in Wyandotte.
Our municipal electric system has three sources of supply to provide
reliable, affordable service. Our electric distribution system consists of
69,000-volt transmission lines and 13,200-volt and 4,800-volt distribution
lines. The municipal electric utility also installs, maintains and provides
electricity for streetlights throughout the community.
Wyandotte having its own electric distribution and generation facilities gives our residents a
great advantage when power outages occur. The time to bring our power
back online is considerably less than in neighboring communities served
by other power utilities. Reliability is our number one priority. All
you have to do is ask any Wyandotte citizen about the reliability of
Wyandotte electric and you’ll generally get the response that there is no
better provider of electric services.


Streaming TV - Internet - Phone
The Wyandotte Municipal Services (Wyandotte ConneX) telecommunications utility was created by local residents in 1981 when voters demonstrated their confidence in the department’s ability by approving an ordinance to place the implementation, construction and operation of the new cable television system under the auspices of the Municipal Services department.
In 1983 the department installed the cable infrastructure throughout the city and began offering basic cable television services. Since 1983 we have developed the limited basic cable television system into a full broadband telecommunications system.  1999 the cable infrastructure was rebuilt and upgrades to existing services, enhancements and additional service offerings were being introduced. All former equipment for these services has been replaced with new state of the art, technologically advanced equipment which is evident in the quality and number of cable channels, services and features as well as speed and reliably of our internet and phone voice services. Between 2014 & present Wyandotte ConneX has built out additional fiber optic cables, gone to all digital & high definition signal format. Wyandotte ConneX now offers a wide selection of cable television services from Digital and High Definition programming to advanced internet connected whole home video services powered by TiVo technology with access to everything on all mobile devices. We also offer Turbo High Speed Broadband Internet & Digital Phone services as well as direct fiber business connections for all data services.  We also maintain a complete point to point fiber interconnect for all City of Wyandotte and Wyandotte Municipal Services facilities including communication for electric grid as well as a fiber optic interconnect of all public schools in Wyandotte.  Today the telecommunications utility serves approximately 5,100 cable television subscribers, 6,000 high-speed internet subscribers and 900 Digital Phone subscribers with annual revenues of approximately $10 million dollars.
Wyandotte ConneX is in the project planning stages of rebuilding its system utilizing a Fiber To The Home (FTTH) architecture  that will bring fiber optic cable directly to the home. The plans are for this new system to be complete and available to serve the citizens of our community within the next 24 months. This will enable all Wyandotte residents and businesses to be the ‘Smart Home’ of the future where anything and everything can be connected, any device, anytime and anywhere.
This system will allow for 10G connectivity and more as technology is developed to provide those capacities.
The utility contributes five percent of its gross revenue to the city’s general fund and supports a cable television studio where public access, local access and government programming is produced. Wyandotte ConneX telecommunications system currently consists of 25 linear miles of fiber-optic lines, over 3,000 strand miles of fiber-optic lines and 72 miles of coaxial cable.
Technology and advanced equipment upgrades are continually being implemented. Look for those upgrades to continue with even faster internet speeds and greater bandwidth capacity, additional television programming in an IP based format via internet connected devices and other service enhancements that our customers have come to expect that we will provide.


VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.WYANDOTTECONNEX.COM

A Brief History of the City of Wyandotte
From the early 1700s the Downriver area was inhabited by French farmers and Wyandot Native Americans. The French had established a fort at Detroit to extend their fur trade empire, and the Wyandot Native Americans had joined them at their new outpost. The fort proved successful and the French settlers had been granted tracts of land for farms. These early farms extended along the Detroit River into land that became known as Ecorse Township.

The village of Maquaqua was truly the beginning of our present community. That small site became the nucleus of the City of Wyandotte, Michigan. Historians tell us that the Wyandots built their village in 1732. The original village extended from approximately Oak Street to Eureka Avenue, and from Biddle Avenue to the Detroit River.
Read the rest of 'A Brief History' and learn more about our wonderful community and its rich history by following this link to the Wyandotte Museums website .
The Wyandotte Museums, established in 1977 as part of the Department of Recreation, Leisure, and Culture for the City of Wyandotte, seeks to promote an awareness and appreciation of the history of our city and the surrounding area.
Please visit the City of Wyandotte and the Wyandotte Museums for more information.


History of our Indian Head Logo
Many people don't know that there's a story behind the Indian head logo, located in BASF Park along the river just north of the golf course... 'The Wyandots – A Family Tribute' was dedicated to the City of Wyandotte in 2000.  The sculpture was created by Michaele Duffy Kramer and is made of bronze. The sculpture is modeled after a Native American family, and depicts items that are essential to their survival: corn, beans, squash, as well as tobacco, sage, sweet grass and cedar. Picture by Jim Arnosky


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