Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1916-08-04
WANTS FRANCHISE EXTENDED

WANTS FRANCHISE EXTENDED
WATER POWER COMPANY ASKS
FOR 10-YEAR EXTENSION OF
LIGHT FRANCHISE
"A ten-year extension of a lighting
franchise which at this time the COM
pany is not operating under, was asked
FOR by T. C. Gordon Of the Water
Power company at meeting of the
city council called for that purpose on
Thursday evening Of last week. All
members Of the council except Blake
and Murphy were present. "-}
Mr.. Gordon told the council that the
reason he asked for the extension of
the Water Power company's lighting
franchise was that they have contem-
plated certain improvements, including
the erection or a new power house
here and the completion of the west
wing of the dam. For some time the
company has been trying to arrange
its finances in order to take care Of
this work and as the bond market has
been unusually favorable this year the
company has succeeded in arranging
to sell their bonds at very favorable
terms. The bonding company requires
as collateral every contract Of the COM
pany, which among other things in
cludes municipal contracts and fran
chises. These must run as long as the
bond issue, namely twenty-five years.
The present franchise, MI. Gordon
| said, belongs to the Morrison County
Electric Light, Heat & Power com
pany. By neglect on the part of the Of
| 1icials of the company and the city the
franchise was. never assigned to the
new company which took over the hold
ings of the old. The franchise has IS
years to run from October of this
year, being originally drawn for twen-
| ty-fve years.
An ordinance drawn up by an attor-
| ney for the Water Power company,
was presented to the council by Mr..
| to extend the franchise of the com
pany. Written with typewriter, the
| ordinance covered three pages and a
| stated that a great deal Of it's contents
was but legal verbiage and that, sim
mered down, the ordinance contained
nothing more than permission for the
company to nut poles and wires on the
streets and alleys 1f the city. No
rates were mentioned in the ordinance,
although space was left where the
rates could be inserted by the council
if they so desired, he said The ordi-
nance would also provide for a board
of arbitration to settle all differences
between the company and its patrons.
Mr.. Gordon said that he did not
claim that the Water Power company
is 100 per cent perfect, but he did be-
lieve, he said, that it has been giving
the people good service and at a very
reasonable rate. He mentioned that he
had met with the electric light rate
committee recently and that he had
| offered them modified rate, one that
was better than the rate that has been
adopted in Minneapolis recently. The
demand charge, which is included in
the Minneapolis rates, was eliminated
by him, because there had been some
! objection to a demand charge here,
and a straight meter rate for actual
current consumption had been submit
| ted to the committee. He told the
| council that there was no need for
hurry as far as the ordinance was con-
cerned as the company would not like
ly start work on the new dam the
| following day, or anything like that,
but the reason he wanted the matter
brought up before July % was that on
! that day he was to meet with a trust
! company to clean up business matters
to certain extent and he desired to
| report to them that the matter Of the
| extension of the franchise had been
! definitely brought before the council.
The committee on light rates had
| asked Mr.. Gordon, he said, to submit
new schedule of Gates, eliminating
the drop system, which rates would be
| satisfactory to the company. lie said
he did so, giving them rate which
! was lower than the old rate. The
maximum under the proposed rate was
1917 cents per kilowatt hour, whereas,
he said, the average paid during 1915
was 9 cents per kilowatt. Under the
old rate the minimum is 81, if no cur
rent is used and if current is used the
bill would be 81 plus the cost Of thu
current, at 5 cents per kilowatt. I'm
der the proposed rate the minimum
would be 81, he said, but nearly twelve
kilowatts of current could be used AM
the cost still be no more than 81. TIL
exact rates Mr.. Gordon submitted wer'
as follows,
Residence Lighting Only
Per Kilo. Hou
First 80 kilowatt hours. .......... 8@
Next 80 kilowatt hours. ......... .613
All over 60 kilowatt hours ..3c
Discount, if paid on or before tn
18th of each month, S per cent; mini
mum monthly bill, $1.00 for each mete
installed.
General Lighting
Per KilO. Hou
First 100 kilowatt hours. ..8@
Next 200 kilowatt hours In