[Adopted 1-5-1904 as Ord.
No. 1056]
The Pennsylvania and New York Telephone and Telegraph Company,[1] a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the New York and Pennsylvania Telephone
and Telegraph Company, its lessee, be and are hereby authorized and empowered
to use and occupy the streets of the City of Bradford, Pennsylvania, and construct,
build and maintain subways and manholes and place cables and appurtenances
underground therein and to erect poles and string wires, cables, fixtures
and appurtenances thereto and thereon for telephone and telegraph purposes
and to maintain and operate the same upon the terms and conditions hereinafter
specified, which shall be conditioned precedent to the continued exercise
of the rights therein granted to said Pennsylvania and New York Telephone
and Telegraph Company or its said lessee; provided, however, that no conduit
or subway shall be constructed on Main Street within five (5) years from the
date of the passage of this ordinance, except one (1) subway crossing said
street at or near Chestnut Street at a point to be designated by the Mayor,
nor after said period of five (5) years without special consent obtained from
the Mayor and Street Committee of Councils.
[1]
Editor's Note: This franchise is now vested in Bell Telephone Company
of Pennsylvania.
Said companies agree to construct their lines, poles, subways and conduits,
with the necessary appliances and appurtenances, and to maintain and operate
the same in, through, over and under the streets of said city at their own
expense and in accordance with the ordinances, resolutions and regulations
of said city and with a due and proper regard for the welfare of said city
and of the streets used and occupied, reserving and furnishing free of charge
for the use of the Fire and Police Departments of said City of Bradford such
portions of their poles as are now reserved by the ordinances of the City
of Bradford, or which may be hereafter reserved by any ordinance of said city,
on the poles of all telephone and telegraph companies upon the streets of
the City of Bradford, furnishing and maintaining on poles, crossarms and lines
erected pursuant to this permission necessary space, free of cost or charge
and rental, to carry the wires of the Fire and Police Departments for the
sole use of such Departments for fire and police purposes now or hereafter
owned by the City of Bradford, and the agents or employees of said city shall
at all times be allowed to string, place and repair such wires upon notice
to the superintendent or person in charge of the property of said companies
in Bradford.
All work done pursuant to the franchise hereby granted shall be done
under the supervision of the City Engineer concerning the location of poles,
crossarms, wires, conduits, subways and other necessary appliances. The poles
to be erected by said companies shall be placed under the direction of the
City Engineer and be of such character as may be approved by him. Said companies
shall file with said City Engineer, whenever required, a map showing the location
of their conduits, subways, poles, wires, crossarms and such other appliances
as may be used by them under and by virtue of this franchise.
Said companies, in the enjoyment of the rights and privileges herein
granted, shall, in the case of all street excavations and openings, comply
with the provisions of the ordinances now in force or hereafter to be passed
regulating the issue of permits for and the manner of making and refilling
such street openings or excavations[1] and shall give bond to the City of Bradford before such openings
or excavations are made in such amount and with such conditions as to indemnify
to the city the replacing of the portion of the street torn up or excavated
in proper condition and the keeping of the same in repair as may be required
by the Mayor of the City of Bradford.
The franchise hereby granted shall not be construed as depriving the
City of Bradford from the right of granting a similar one to any person, firm,
company or corporation.
Whenever after the expiration of five (5) years from the date of the
passage of this ordinance said city shall have constructed a general subway
or conduit system for the accommodation of the wires of all companies operating
electrical conductors and shall have required all such companies to remove
their poles and wires from the surface of the streets, said companies, upon
notice in writing from said city requiring them so to do, shall, within a
reasonable time, remove their poles and overhead lines, except those used
for distribution purposes, from any and all streets occupied by them in said
city and place their wires within conduits or subways which may now or hereafter
be constructed or owned by said city and shall pay for the use of such conduits
or subways a reasonable rental which, in case of disagreement as to the amount
and terms of payment, shall be determined as follows: Each party shall select
an appraiser who, on failure to agree, shall select a third. A majority of
such appraisers shall thereupon fix a fair price for the rental and the terms
of payment, and their decision shall be final, provided that where said companies
shall have constructed subways or conduits for the wiring of any street of
the city previous to the time of the construction of conduits and subways
upon such streets by the City of Bradford, said companies shall not be compelled
to place their wires in such conduits or subways so constructed by the city
or owned by the city, except by mutual agreement, unless the City of Bradford
should at any time determine to own and rent all of the conduits or subways
in the city, in which case said companies, if so required by the city, shall
transfer to the City of Bradford any and all subways or conduits theretofore
built by them upon payment of the actual cost price of the construction thereof
with the interest on the cost of any portion of said subways which may have
been built in excess of the immediate requirement of said companies for the
period during which any such portion shall have remained unused.
In case the city itself does not construct subways or conduits upon
any street for the wires of telephone and telegraph companies, said companies
shall, whenever notified by the city to do so at any time after five (5) years
from the date of the approval of this ordinance, remove the poles and overhead
lines, except those used for distribution purposes, from any such street or
streets occupied by them in the City of Bradford and place their wires within
the conduits or subways to be built and constructed by said companies at their
own expense, under the supervision of the City Engineer, and subject to such
regulations as the Councils of the city may prescribe, provided that the city
may not direct the placing of the wires of said companies in conduits or subways
underground in any street of the city except Main Street, unless said companies
shall maintain upon said street at least fifty (50) circuits of open wires.
Said companies shall at all times provide, free of charge, space adequate
for the use of wires of the Police and Fire Departments of the City of Bradford,
for police and fire purposes only, in any and all the conduits or subways
which said companies shall construct under the provisions of this franchise,
and the agents and employees of said city shall at all times be allowed, under
the supervision of the superintendent of said companies or their local manager
in said city, to drawn in, construct, place and repair such wires upon giving
a reasonable notice to the superintendent or other person in charge of the
property of the companies in said city.
Said companies shall not permit or allow to be placed on the poles or
in the subways or conduits the wires or conductors of any other person or
corporation without consent of the city, provided that this restriction shall
not apply to the present use of said poles or the future interchanging use
of poles between said companies and the Bradford Electric Light & Power
Company, the National Transit Company, the United States Pipe Line Company,
the Tide Water Pipe Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Postal
Telegraph Company.
It is also made a condition for the granting to said companies of the
rights and privileges hereinbefore specified that said companies shall furnish
to the City of Bradford and its subscribers a good and sufficient telephone
service and that the charges therefor shall never exceed the rates charged
for similar services in other cities of like size under similar service conditions
within the jurisdiction of said companies, with the intention that the City
of Bradford shall never be discriminated against in the matter of rates for
telephone service.
In further consideration of the granting of this franchise, said companies
shall furnish to the City of Bradford during the continuance of this franchise,
free of charge, by direct wires when required, telephone service and telephones
for exchange messages only to the city offices and hose houses of said city,
to the number of fifteen (15) such telephones to be located at such points
within said city as Councils may designate, the furnishing of which telephones
shall be in lieu of the annual license tax now charged to said companies;
this, however, shall not include the pole and wire licenses, which shall be
paid by said companies as now or hereafter prescribed by ordinance.
Except as provided in the last preceding section, said companies shall
pay and be subject to such license taxes or pole and wire licenses for the
use of the city as are now prescribed or may hereafter be prescribed by any
ordinance of the City of Bradford for telephone and telegraph companies using
the streets of said city.
Said companies shall not, during the continuance of this franchise,
lease the telephone and telegraph system operated under this franchise to
any other person, firm or competing company or corporation or sell this franchise
to any other person, firm or competing corporation or indirectly by consolidation
effect a lease or sale of this franchise to any other competing corporation
without the consent of the City of Bradford first obtained thereto by an ordinance
of the Councils of said city approved by the Mayor.
The rights and privileges herein granted shall inure to the benefit
of the New York and Pennsylvania Telephone and Telegraph Company as well as
to the Pennsylvania and New York Telephone and Telegraph Company, of which
said New York and Pennsylvania Telephone and Telegraph Company is lessee,
subject to all of the conditions and restrictions herein imposed.
All the rights and privileges herein granted are granted upon the express
provision that the faithful performance and carrying out of this ordinance
by said companies are conditions precedent to the construction and maintenance
or the continued operation by said companies of their telephone and telegraph
system under the ordinance, and upon the failure of said companies to carry
out and comply with all of said terms and conditions all rights and privileges
granted by this ordinance shall at once cease and determine.
