A Fifty-Year Franchise for All-Night Power
Officials from the Northern Idaho and Montana Electric Light and Power Co. toured Newport, sketched a town-wide distribution system, and asked the city council for a half-century franchise.
Representatives of the Northern Idaho and Montana Electric Light and Power Co. were in the city Wednesday looking after the interests of the company and considering plans for the improvement of the local service of the Northern Electric Co. They were O. E. Osthoff, vice president; H. H. Jones, general manager for this section; Emil C. Braun, chief engineer for Byllesby Co.; and F. Y. Low, consulting engineer.
The company is at present having a plat of Newport made, laying out the proposed distribution system for the town. Several extensions are already ordered, and it is the intention of the company to reach all parts of the town and keep pace in every way with its growth. Their lines will be built in the alleys wherever possible. The company has also established an office and will put in a stock of lamps, fixtures and various modern electrical equipment.
Engineers are now at work inspecting four prospective water power sites, and work of developing water power will be started as soon as the engineers make their report and plans can be drawn. Whether the local plant will be rebuilt or a high tension wire strung into Newport is not as yet determined, as both plans are being considered, but at any rate the company promises speedy installation of a twenty-four hour service.
H. M. Byllesby Co., promoters of the proposition, are consulting engineers for municipalities and corporations. Among the plants that they manage are the Mobile, Ala., Gas Electric Co.; Mansfield Zanesville Traction Co., of Ohio; Ottumwa, Iowa, Gas, Electric and Street Railway Co.; Oklahoma City, Muskogee and Enid, Oklahoma, Gas Electric Companies, and the San Diego, Cal., Gas and Electric Co.
The application of the company for a fifty-year franchise for the Northern Electric Co., of this city, will come before the council at its next regular meeting. The gentlemen state that they invite the closest investigation of their financial standing and ability to carry out the plans involved in the huge project.
“The company promises speedy installation of a twenty-four hour service.”
A fifty-year utility franchise granted in 1909 could still be shaping Newport's grid today if it had survived. The fight over who controls power—private holding companies or the public—has not gone away; it has just moved from city council chambers to regulatory commissions.
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