[Adopted 6-8-1927[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: Section 13 of this ordinance required the company to file its acceptance within 60 days after final enactment and signify in writing acceptance of the terms of this ordinance or the ordinance would become null and void. Section 14 stated that upon acceptance of the ordinance and approval by the Public Service Commission, that an ordinance enacted November 11, 1889, granting a franchise to the Pennsylvania Telephone Company, and ordinances approved July 17, 1911, and October 17, 1912, granting franchises to the Bell Telephone Company, would be repealed.
Permission be and is hereby granted to the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania,[1] its successors and assigns to construct, maintain and operate its posts, poles, cables, wires and all other necessary overhead apparatus on, over and along, and its conduits, ducts, mains, poles, cables, wires, manholes, terminals and distributing poles and all other necessary underground appliances on, in, under and through, the streets, alleys, and highways within the limits of the Borough of Chambersburg, County of Franklin, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to use the property of other companies and to permit other companies that possess authority to operate within said borough to use its property, upon such arrangements as the two companies may agree.
[1]
Note: This franchise is now vested in the United Telephone Company.
Whenever said company shall desire to erect, lay down or construct any poles, conduits or manholes, it shall present a plan or plans showing the location, number and size thereof to the Chairman of the Street Committee, who is hereby authorized and empowered for and on behalf of the Council of said borough to approve or disapprove as to location. In case said Chairman disapproves any plan or plans as to the location of any poles, conduits or manholes, he shall designate thereon by the use of appropriate words or marks, or both, some other location in the same highway suitable for the purposes of said company. The plan or plans or a copy thereof, with approval endorsed thereon, shall be filed with the Borough Clerk [Secretary] before any work shown thereon is started; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall be construed to require the submission or approval of plans where said company finds it necessary to renew or replace existing poles.
All poles erected by said company shall extend not less than 20 feet above the surface of the ground and shall be so located as in no way to interfere with the safety or convenience of persons traveling on or over said streets, alleys and highways, and in the installation and maintenance of its underground system, said company shall [not occupy] or encumber more of any street, alley or highway than will be necessary to enable it to perform the work with proper economy and efficiency.
The erection of poles and the construction of conduits and manholes under the provisions of this ordinance shall be subject to the supervision of the Chairman of the Street Committee, and said company shall replace and properly relay that portion of any sidewalk or street pavement which may have been displaced or damaged by it in the construction and maintenance of its system.
Said company shall, at its own expense and within a reasonable time after receipt of written notice from Borough Council so to do, raise or lower such of its conduits and rearrange such of its manholes as interfere with the construction of sewer or water pipes owned and operated by the borough and shift sidewise such of its conduits as interfere with the construction of borough sewer manholes.
Said company shall, at its expense and within a reasonable time after receipt of written notice from the borough, change the location of any pole and rearrange any wire or cable that interferes with a proposed entrance to abutting property and rearrange any of its aerial works which interfere with the erection or maintenance of any poles, lines, equipment or apparatus owned by or operated by the Burgess and Town Council of the Borough of Chambersburg.
Space on the poles now or hereafter erected and in the conduits now or hereafter constructed by said company, its successors or assigns may be used, free of charge, for the purpose of carrying wires of any fire alarm or police telegraph system owned and maintained by said borough, provided said wires are placed and maintained in such a manner as may be prescribed by said company and that no use shall be made of such space by said borough which will result in interfering with or impairing the operation or use of said company's property or service or will endanger its property or employees.
Said company shall maintain all posts, poles, cables, wires, conduits, ducts, mains, pipes, manholes, and all other apparatus now or hereafter erected or constructed in the Borough of Chambersburg in good and safe order and condition and shall at all times fully indemnify, protect and save harmless said borough from and against all loss and necessary expenditures arising from the erection, construction and maintenance and use of its system or from its neglect or failure to maintain said apparatus in good and safe order and condition or from its negligent use of same.
Said company shall be governed by the lawful terms and provisions of all ordinances of a general nature affecting its operations in the Borough of Chambersburg that are now in force and enacted under and by virtue of the police powers of said borough or the laws of the state, as well as all lawful terms and provisions of such ordinances hereafter so enacted.
In order to properly compensate the Borough of Chambersburg for service performed or to be performed by it in the inspection of the poles owned by the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, said company shall pay unto said borough such license fee as is now the legal right to impose and collect.
Nothing in this ordinance shall be construed to grant said company any exclusive right or to prevent a grant of similar privileges to other companies, and whenever said posts, poles, cables, wires, conduits, ducts, mains, pipes, manholes and other apparatus now or hereafter erected and constructed by said company in the Borough of Chambersburg shall cease to be used by said company, its successors or assigns in interest for the purpose mentioned in this ordinance, said company, its successors or assigns in interest shall remove all such apparatus from the sidewalks, alleys and highways of the borough and shall place said sidewalks, alleys and highways in the same condition as the surrounding or adjacent surface of said sidewalk, alley, or highway, by replacing and relaying that portion of the surface of any sidewalk, alley or highway as may be necessary to obtain that result.
Nothing in this ordinance contained shall be construed to prevent said borough from exercising the authority vested in it under and by virtue of the General Borough Act approved May 4, 1927, and any amendments and supplements thereto.
Said company shall continue to maintain free of charge one telephone at each of the following locations: Junior Hose Company, Goodwill Hose Company, Cumberland Valley Hose Company, Police Headquarters, and Electric Light Station, and furnish free service from said five telephones for the transaction of municipal business only to all telephones in the area within which local service is from time to time furnished at standard rates to the company's subscribers in said borough, and said borough shall pay unto said company at standard rates for all telephone service furnished to it outside of the area within which free service is to be allowed under this section.
[1]
Note: The Public Utility Commission considers free service discriminatory; therefore, the provisions for free service are no longer in effect.