Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-03-20

cannot exceed three per cent of its total value for in
debtedness. Our Indebtedness at this time is abou
1874, 10000 and when added to this the purchase pric,
of this new pumping outfit of $500 less an inita
down payment of 500 gives us a total debt of a littl,
in excess of 100000
Last year our total Indebtedness amounted K
bver s42, 100000 but 100000 of this has been paid of
by tax receipts.
The Power Company that has invested consid
cradle money here recently wrote a letter in connection
with the rates here, which explains their attitude, rs
they maintain that throughout the year the white way
should be lit an average of - hours each night, and as
Plentywood now uses fifty rs watt street lights in the
residential districts and twenty 200 watt lights on the
white way, they figure that the total consumption Of
light for the year would amount to 30225 Kilowatt
hours which they claim would cost Plentywobd a total
sum of sl6S2.64. or a cost of SIS cents per XVIII.
Regarding the pump plant they say in part as
follows:
This same method of figuring holds
true with your pumping problem. In the past
you have had a connected load or a total
horsepower demand on our system of 33 H. P.
in your billing: Beginning from the accept
ance of this contract we will bill you on the
actual horsepower demand with a minimum
of Is HIP. In this way We will eliminate the
charge of $500 a month for the horsepower
connected that you have not been using, and
you will find by comparing your XVIII con-
sumed through the last twelve months the
following example:
In the past twelve months you have
used 27O86 XVIII for pumping. You have
paid S1372.OO for this amount of XVIII or
sos per XVIII Under the new arrangement
basing our figures on the same amount of
w allowing you the credit of $4,000 which
would be $500 a month for IL months your
w charge for the same performance would
be 4.3c per XVIII, making a saving of 1c per
XVIII or $4,000 on your total consumption.
The average W charge throughout the
year for pumping will be 4.3c and the aver
age w charge for street lighting assuming
that you burn the number of lamps all night
showing in this problem will be 5.5c for
street lights. .
Besides this we have over $4,000 invest
ed in a street lighting distributing system in
Plentywood in poles, wires and fixtures, that
we have to maintain throughout the life of
the contract, pay interest, depreciation and
taxes on exclusive of the other part of the
distribution system used for lighting the
residential and business sections of the city.
We are quoting the above letter, so as to make
the situation clear as far as the Power Company is
concerned.
Now, on the other hand, the Fairbanks Morse
agent claims that with his Diesel engine installed here,
it will cost the city only l lac per XVIII or a total
cost of only $1,000 for the same amount Of power and
light which the power company furnishes at the prices
quoted above.
The question now arises as to the validity Of
this new transaction; what it will actually cost to
keep this new plant operating, the matter of whether
the withdrawal of this revenue from the power COM
pany will lower their income to such an extent that the
rates for private consumers will be increased, and also
if the city will be able to maintain the new plant
J,@,oun Lo1o - ;ooooc ~ co1n,oc
No matter how we look at it, it is going to cost
a lot of money to keep our streets lit up at night, but
we trust that the action now taken by our Council is
for the best, and in the meantime we shall watch pro-
ceedings with keener interest than ever.