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<br />MR. HONCHELL: There are some in other parts of the City <br />but my recommendation would be to ignore them. Not that I'm <br />against street lights - but the City is not in the light busi- <br />ness. Ninety percent of the street lights in the City are main- <br />tained by NSP. In the case of underground facilities, they are <br />wooden poles with arms. We do not stock poles, we don't have an <br />electrician to go around and check light bulbs, and we don't <br />keep parts around for one street light of a particular design. <br />Over a period of 20 years or so, it's very difficult to keep <br />parts around for three or four lights. It has been done and <br />we're paying for it dearly. On County Road B-2 near Rosedale <br />and further to the west near the golf course you will see some <br />of the City's ornamental lights. They are a problem. When they <br />are run over, we have to special-order poles. <br /> <br />MAYOR DEMOS: You said they're wooden poles? <br /> <br />MR. HONCHELL: The underground system is a wooden pole <br />system, not a metal pole system. They're straighter, nicer <br />looking wooden poles. - <br /> <br />MAYOR DEMOS: Not tree trunks. <br /> <br />MR. HONCHELL: But they are wooden. <br /> <br />MR. SANDBERG: Along County Road B-2 they are metal. Is <br />there a difference in cost? <br /> <br />MR. HONCHELL: The City would have to go out and have the <br />lights designed, order them, hire someone to put them up and <br />maintain them forever. The cost would be three or four times <br />as much. NSP has people to do this work everyday rather than us <br />special hiring someone every time a light bulb has to be changed. <br />We don't even have the equipment to get up that high. <br /> <br />MR. GEORGE REILING, 661 Heinel Drive: Does it actually <br />cost NSP $1800.00 to erect this - over and above what the other <br />poles cost? <br /> <br />MR. HONCHELL: No, I can explain how the $1800.00 comes <br />about. Say this is intersection "X" and "Y" and you have a so- <br />called overhead, up-in-the-air system. If we put one light <br />there, it would cost $8.60 per month for the power, bulbs, <br />repair work, etc., in the future. They do that all for $8.60 <br />per month. Over a year it amounts to $103.20. On the other <br />hand, they charge us $11.05 per month if it's in an underground <br />area. I can't tell you why there is that difference, except <br />that the people who regulate their rates have approved that <br />rate and that is what we pay for underground lights anywhere 'in <br />the City. The difference is about $30.00 a year. As you have <br />observed from your own NSP bills, what you used to pay a dollar <br />for no longer costs a dollar - the same will occur,with street <br />lights - so we have put in an 8% inflation factor and multiplied <br />that higher rate by 20 years, which comes out to $1350.00 in <br /> <br />3 <br />