[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to the Bell Telephone Company, would be repealed.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.
