Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-07-10
Power Company Men
Explain Their Views
Says Severance of Service in
City Must Be Paid For as
Well as for Pole Line

In an interview with w. l.. Hayes
Of Minneapolis, representing the Mon
tana- Dakota Power Co., relative to the
local light and Power controversy, he
made the following statement.
1.-THE Montana-Dakota Power Com
pany has no intention Of relinquishing
its right to serve Plentywood with ell
ectricity. We doubt if the clause in the
franchise referred to by the Mayor
gives the city the right to buy the dis
tributing system. But in any event
the city has no right to buy u fran
chise in Plentywood, so that if the city
would buy our distribution system VIC
would build a new distribution sys-
tenn and continue to serve Plentywood
under our franchise, so that the best
the city could accomplish would be to
have a municipal plant in competition
with the Montana Dakota Power Com
pany. Such a competitive situation
would undoubtedly result in temper
airy low rates in Plentywood with the
inevitable result that the city would
lose money in the operation of their
municipal plant and eventually go
back on hi-line service.
Because of the fact that the city
has already exceeded its legal debt
limit, we can see no way in which the
city can purchase oil engine equip
ment, build a power plant, and buy or
build a distribution system. We are
certain that an isolated municipal
plant in P~lentywood could not render
service at rates as low as the present
rates.
1--WE think it would be a serious mis-
take for the townspeople of Plenty
wood to burden themselves with a
large debt to pay for a municipal
plant in competition with the Power
Company. The only result that could
possibly take place would be to 60
back on hi-line service and pay off the
large debt out of increased taxes.
"The city could not expect to buy
the Power Company's present dis
tribution system by paying only the
price set by an Arbitration Board as
the present value of the distribution
system. The city would have to pay
a substantial severence charge to re-
imburse the Power Company for their
investment in the transmission line
built to serve Plentywood.
"The Montana-D Dakota Power Com
pany built the transmission line from
Bainville to Scobey primarily to serve
Plentywood and Scobey. They also
provided generating capacity in their
power plant to serve this business. If
the city expected to buy the Power
Company's distribution system, they
would have to pay the Power Com
pany for the investment made to
serve Plenywood, which is represent
ed by the hi-line and power plants, as
we'll as the distribution system.
1.-THE Montana-D Dakota Power Com
pany purchased the isolated plant at
Plentywood five years ago in good
faith and has invested several nun
bred thousand dollars in transmission
lines and power plants to render ade-
quate service to Plentywood at reas-
enable rates. The rates in Plentywood
have been reduced each year since the
hi-line was completed so that the peo-
pie of Plentywood are enjoying rates
that are more than forty per cent
lower than when the town was served
by a local isolated plant. We feel
that the people of Plentywood are be-
ing l~rved at the present time much
more cheaply than they could expect
to be served by a municipality owned
isolated plant"