All persons using or maintaining any telegraph, telephone, electric light or other poles, water or gas pipelines, pipes and other fixtures on any of the streets, highways, easements, alleys, parks or other places within the city, shall, on the first day of August of each year (covering the preceding first six (6) months of the same calendar year) and on the first day of February of each and every year (covering the last six (6) months of the calendar year preceding), file with the city secretary a sworn report showing the gross receipts from the business conducted by such persons within the city for the period of time so specified.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 1)
The reports required by section 26-40, filed on the first day of August, covering the first six (6) months of that year, and on the first day of February following, covering the last six (6) months of the preceding calendar year, shall constitute the basis for payment of the rental hereinafter provided.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 2)
The governing body may, when it should see fit, have the books and records of the person rendering the statement required in section 26-40 examined by a representative of the city to ascertain whether such statement is correct, accurate, and meets the requirements of this division, but nothing in this division shall be construed to prevent the city from ascertaining the facts by any other method.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 3)
Upon the first day of August and the first day of February of each year, at the time of filing the reports provided for above, every person occupying and/or using the streets, highways, easements, alleys, parks, or other public places in the city with poles, pipes, and other fixtures as specified above shall, as a condition to such further occupancy and use so described, and set forth, pay to the city semiannually, for such privileges, a rental equal to two (2) per cent of the gross receipts received by such person from his business conducted within the city for the preceding six-months period covered by the reports to be filed on the first days of August and February of each year, as provided for above, which rentals shall be paid to the city at the city hall; provided, however, any person engaged in the distribution of gas within said city shall not be required to include in his gross receipts upon which the rental is computed, the receipts from the sale of other than domestic and commercial gas, and excluding industrial gas, as the same may be defined in any current rate ordinance of the city.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 4)
Upon receipt of the above rentals by the city, the city secretary shall deliver to the person paying the same a receipt for such rental, which receipt shall authorize such person to use and occupy the streets, highways, easements, alleys, parks and other public places or ways of the city, in carrying on its business for six (6) months subsequent to and from the respective dates provided for the filing of reports and the payment of rentals.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 5)
The rental for the privilege of using the streets, alleys, highways, easement, and public places of the city provided for in this division is not charged as a tax, but is made for the privilege now enjoyed and to be enjoyed by such persons of using the streets, alleys, easements, and other public ways of the city in the conduct of their respective businesses; and such charges are additional to all ad valorem taxes and franchise charges and to all taxes of every nature, whatsoever, against such persons.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 6)
This division shall not be applicable to any person who is now paying or who may hereafter pay to the city, rentals based on its gross receipts, for the uses and privileges herein defined, as a matter of contract with the city, covered by ordinance for that purpose, or who may pay such rentals based on gross receipts of its business, for the use and privileges herein defined, as a part of any grant, or franchise made by said city, covered by ordinance, to any such person in which the same is specifically defined, as payment of rental for the purposes covered by this division.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 7)
This division does not grant a franchise to any utility or person to use the streets, easements, alleys and other public ways within the city, and shall never be so construed by the courts, or otherwise, and the city reserves the right to cancel the privileges granted hereunder, and refund the unearned rentals paid to the city, as herein provided for.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 9)
The city reserves the right to put into effect at any time other restrictions and regulations as to the erection and maintenance of poles, wires, pipes, mains, conduits, and other appurtenances in the streets, easements, alleys, and other public ways of the city, and from time to time to require such poles, wires, pipes, mains, conduits, and other property, equipment, and fixtures as it may deem proper to be removed and to require wires to be run in conduits on such terms as the city may deem proper.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 10)
Every person who shall operate any business without the payment of the rentals provided for herein shall be subject to a penalty of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each day that such person shall conduct such business, using and occupying the streets, easements, alleys and other public ways of the city without the payment of said rentals, which sum may be recovered by the city in a court of competent jurisdiction by a suit filed therein. In addition to said penalty, such person shall become liable for and become subject to, as an additional penalty for the operation of any such business in violation of the terms of this division, the payment to the city of all reasonable expenses, including all attorneys’ fees, as may be incurred by said city in the prosecution of or litigation against any such person for the violation of any provision of this division, which said additional penalty shall be recoverable by said city in any court of competent jurisdiction by a suit filed therein either separately or in connection with such prosecution or litigation aforesaid.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 11)
Every person, and the local manager or the local agent representing such person in the city, failing or refusing to make the report required in section 26-40 or failing or refusing to allow the examination provided for in section 26-42, shall upon conviction in the municipal court of the city be fined as provided in section 1-5, and each day’s failure or refusal shall be deemed a separate offense.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 12)
The city fire marshal, building inspector, electrical inspector, police officers, and such other persons as may be designated from time to time, shall have the power and it shall be their duty to examine and inspect from time to time all telegraph, telephone, electric light or other poles, water pipelines, gas pipelines, mains, pipes and other fixtures, in the public places within the city for the purpose of seeing that all of the same are in a safe and suitable condition, and whenever any such item is found to be unsafe, or unsuitable for the purposes for which it is used, the person using, possessing, or maintaining same shall be notified and required to place the same in a safe and suitable condition, as a part of and prerequisite to the exercise of its privileges of occupancy and use as herein defined.
(Ordinance adopted 4/20/42, sec. 13)
The poles, wires, anchors, cables, manholes, conduits and other plant construction and appurtenances, used in or incident to the giving of telephone service and to the maintenance of a telephone business and system by the telephone company in the city, shall remain as now constructed, subject to such changes as under the limitations and conditions herein prescribed may be considered necessary by the city in the exercise of its lawful powers and by the telephone company in the exercise of its business of furnishing telephone service; and the telephone company shall continue to exercise its right to place, remove, construct and reconstruct, extend and maintain its plant and appurtenances as the business and purposes for which it is or may be incorporated may from time to time require along, across, on, over, through, above, and under all the public streets, avenues, alleys and public grounds and places within the present limits of the city and within said limits as the same from time to time may be extended, subject to the regulations, limitations and conditions herein prescribed.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 1)
All poles to be placed shall be of sound material and reasonably straight, and shall be so set that they will not interfere with the flow of water in any gutter or drain, and so that the same will interfere as little as practicable with the ordinary travel on the street or sidewalk. The location and route of all poles, stubs, guys, anchors, conduits and cables to be placed and constructed by the telephone company in the construction and maintenance of its telephone system in the city, and the location of all conduits to be laid by the telephone company within the limits of the city under this division, shall be subject to the reasonable and proper regulations, control and direction of the governing body or of any city official to whom such duties have been or may be delegated.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 2)
The surface of any street, alley, highway, or public place disturbed by the telephone company in building, constructing, renewing or maintaining its telephone plant and system shall be restored within a reasonable time after the completion of the work to as good a condition as before the commencement of work and maintained to the satisfaction of the governing body or of any city official to whom such duties have been or may be delegated, for one year from the date the surface of said street, alley, highway, or public place is broken for such construction or maintenance work, after which time responsibility for the maintenance shall become the duty of the city. No street, alley, highway or public place shall be encumbered for a longer period than shall be necessary to execute the work.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 3)
The telephone company shall maintain its system in reasonable operating condition at all normal times during the continuance of the agreement embodied in this division. An exception to this condition is automatically in effect when service furnished by the telephone company is interrupted, impaired, or prevented by fires, strikes, riots, or other occurrences beyond the control of the telephone company, or by storms, floods or other casualties, in any of which events the telephone company shall do all things, reasonably within its power to do, to restore normal service.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/51, sec. 4)
The telephone company on the request of any person shall remove or raise or lower its wires temporarily to permit the moving of houses or other bulky structures. The expense of such temporary removal, raising or lowering of wires shall be paid by the benefited party or parties, and the telephone company may require such payment in advance. The telephone company shall be given not less than forty-eight (48) hours’ advance notice to arrange for such temporary wire changes.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 5)
The right, license, privilege and permission is hereby granted to the telephone company, its successors and assigns, to trim trees upon and overhanging the streets, alleys, sidewalks and public places of the city, so as to prevent the branches of such trees from coming in contact with the wires or cables of the telephone company, and when so ordered by the city, said trimming shall be done under the supervision and direction of the governing body or of any city official to whom said duties have been or may be delegated.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/72, sec. 6)
To indemnify the city for any and all possible damages to its streets, alleys, and public grounds which may result from the placing and maintenance therein or thereon of the telephone company’s poles, conduits, or other telephone equipment or apparatus, and to compensate the city for its superintendence of the agreement embodied in this division, and as the cash consideration for the same, the telephone company agrees to pay to the city annually during the continuance of the agreement a sum of money equal to two (2) per cent of the annual gross receipts for the preceding year received by the company from the rendition of local exchange telephone transmission service within the corporate limits of the city. The first payment hereunder shall be made April 1, 1962, and shall equal in amount two (2) per cent of the gross receipts received from January 1, 1961, to December 31, 1961; and thereafter payment shall be made annually on April 1 as herein provided.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 7)
The city agrees that the consideration set forth in the section 26-66 shall be paid and received in lieu of any tax, license, charge, fee, street or alley rental or other character of charge for use and occupancy of the streets, alleys and public places of the city; in lieu of any pole tax or inspection fee tax; in lieu of any easement or franchise tax, whether levied as an ad valorem, special or other character of tax; and in lieu of any imposition other than the usual general or special ad valorem taxes now or hereafter levied. Should the city not have the legal power to agree that the payment of the foregoing cash consideration shall be in lieu of the taxes, licenses, charges, fees, rentals, and easement or franchise taxes aforesaid, then the city agrees that it will apply so much of said payment as may be necessary to the satisfaction of the telephone company’s obligations, if any, to pay any such taxes, licenses, charges, fees, rentals, and easement or franchise taxes.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 8)
In addition to the consideration set forth in section 26-66, the telephone company shall hold itself ready to furnish, subject to the use of the city, such wire space as may be required from time to time by the city upon the poles now owned or hereafter erected by the telephone company in the city for the use of the city’s police and fire alarm system; provided that the required wire space shall not exceed the wire capacity of one crossarm on any one pole. The location on the poles of this fire and police wire space shall be determined on specific applications for space, at the time the applications are received from the city, and will be allotted in accordance with the considerations for electrical construction of the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Standards. In its wire construction on the telephone company’s poles, the city will follow the suggestions and requirements laid down for wire construction in the rules and regulations of the Bureau of Standards of the United States Department of Commerce. Where conduits are laid or are constructed by the telephone company, said company shall hold itself ready to furnish sufficient duct space not to exceed capacity of one duct for use by the city in carrying its police and fire alarm wires. All such wires, whether on poles or in conduits, shall be constructed, maintained and operated in such manner as not to interfere with nor create undue hazard in the operation of the telephone system of the telephone company. It is further agreed that the telephone company shall not be responsible to any party or parties whatsoever for any claims, demands, losses, suits, judgments for damages or injuries to persons or property by reason of the construction, maintenance, inspection or use of the police and fire alarm wires belonging to the city, and the city shall insure, indemnify and hold the telephone company harmless against all such claims, losses, demands, suits and judgments.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 9)
Nothing in this division contained shall be construed to require or permit any electric light or power wire attachments by the city or for the city, nor to require or permit any electric light or power wires to be placed in any duct used by the city in the telephone company’s conduits. If light or power attachments are desired by the city or for the city, or if the city desires to place electric light or power wires in any duct used by the city, then a further separate noncontingent agreement shall be prerequisite to such attachments or such use of any duct used by the city. Nothing herein contained shall obligate or restrict the telephone company in exercising its right voluntarily to enter into pole attachment, pole usage, joint ownership, and other wire space facilities agreements with light and power companies and with other wire-using companies which may be privileged to operate within the city.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 10)
The agreement embodied in this division shall be in full force and effect for the period beginning with the effective date hereof and ending eight (8) years after December 1, 1961, provided that at the end of the expiration of the initial period, such term shall be automatically renewed forthwith for successive periods of eight-years, conditioned, however, that if during the last four (4) months of the initial period or of any successive eight (8) year period, not less than ninety (90) days’ prior written notice shall be given either to the telephone company by the city or to the city by the telephone company, setting forth the desire of the giver of such notice to terminate the agreement, then in such case the agreement shall terminate at the expiration of the then current period.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 11)
The rights, powers, limitations, duties and restrictions herein provided for shall inure to and be binding upon the parties hereto and upon their respective successors and assigns.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 13)
Upon acceptance of the agreement, being filed, this division shall take effect and be in force from and after the date of its passage and approval and shall effectuate and make binding the agreement provided by the terms hereof.
(Ordinance adopted 12/18/61, sec. 15)