Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-17
LOOKING FRANCHISE OVER
Proposition Of New Telephone Company
General Topic Of Discussion,
SOME OBJECTIONS TO PROPOSED TERM,
Experience I'm Granting Franchise,
TO other Public Service Corpora
lions IncIines People
to he Cautious.

THE time has come when the city of
Council Bluffs in granting any corporation
or company a valuable franchise should
derive some revenue from such grant,
said a well knewn business man yester-
day in discussing the request Of the Coun-
ell Bluffs Independent Telephone company,
made at the meeting Of the city council
Monday night, for a franchise. The propo-
sition Of the new company was the sub
ject Of general discussion throughout the
city yesterday and it appeared to be the
consensus Of opinion that no more fran
chises should be granted by the city unless
1t derived a substantial revenue in return
for such a grant. Attention was called
to the fact that in Des Moines when the
Mutual Telephone company secured a char
ter It did so on the agreement that II pay
the city a revenue Of 5 per cent Of its
gross earnings.
Objection was also raised by many BUSH
ness men to the granting Of a franchise
for such q long term as thirty-hve years,
as asked by the new company. It was
suggested that the city in the near future,
following the trend OF the times, might de-
sire TO acquire municipal control of the
public utilities by purchase and that there
fore the ordinance granting the franchise
should contain a provision reserving to
the city the right to acquire by purchase
the plant at the end OF five years. or SOM
stated reasonable length OF time. Also
that such purchase be effected on an APP
praised value, the company to select one
appraiser, the city another and a third to
be selected by these two.
The ordinance introduced by the new
company provides for furnishing the city
NTH tan fraa falaphnnaa Innpirxy ~ Aha
city hall yesterday elected the informa-
tion that at present the city has the use Of
fifteen telephones free of charge.
Too Long Between Regulations.
One OF the aldermen. in looking over the
ordinance yesterday at the city hall, ex-
pressed himself as being opposed to the
clause giving the city the right to regu-
late the rates charged by the company once
in every nine years. He gave It as his
opinion that there should be no restriction
as to time, but that the city should have
this power whenever it was deemed ex-
pedient or whenever the conditions justi-
fed such a regulation.
When the Long Distance Telephone com
pany was granted a franchise in Council
Bluffs an annual tax of 81 on each of its
poles was made one OF the provisions, and
" lul6 Nv III uOllNCb III AhCOlAO VI
over 800. 1t was pointed out yesterday
that in the ordinance introduced by the
new ompany there is no such provision.
Several of the aldermen also expressed
themselves as being In favor Of requiring
the company, in the event Of the people
voting to give it a franchise, to furnish a
cash bond as a guaranty that II would full
fnl it's contract with the city and further
hat the ordinance should distinctly pro-
vide a certain date at which the i~nstalla-
ton OF the plant should begin and be COM
pleted.
Inclined to BE Cautious.
With the experience gained in the past
when the Suburban Motor company secured
a franchise which was later absorbed by the
old motor company and when the franchise
granted the new gas and electric company
was to all intents and purposes turned
over to the old company. the aldermen are
inclined to go cautiously before being re-
sponsible for the granting OF any charter
to a new company. While the ordinance
introduced by the new telephone COM
pany contains a clause prohibiting It
from assigning its franchise TO the
Nebraska Telephone company, there Ia
nothing to prevent the Nebraska Telephone
company from acquiring its stock and
thereby the control Of the company.
Alderman Casper is said to b" interested
In the now company, and it was stated
yesterday that when a business nan sug>
gested certain provisions that ought to be
incorporated In the ordinance to safeguard
the city's interests he made this signin-
ant remark: "If you put all these re-
quirements in the ordinance we will not
be able to BOND our company"
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