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No person, except an authorized agent of the city, shall be allowed to set the meters as mentioned in this chapter, or to make connections to the electric service of the city. The owner or tenant of premises where a meter is located shall provide ready and convenient access to the meter so that it may easily be examined and read by the city or its authorized agents. Any customer of electric current from the city has the right to request the city to test his or her meter any reasonable number of times, and the city or its agents shall comply with the request, subject to such reasonable rules and regulations as the city may adopt. The city reserves the right to test and replace any meter in use at any time. The city will keep clean and in proper repair and will replace without cost to customer any service meter where the repair or replacement results from ordinary wear and tear and not from the wilful negligence or recklessness of customer. In consideration of the service rendered or to be rendered in the matter or repairing or replacing the meter, the applicant or customer specifically consents and agrees to keep all service meters and service wires insured for the benefit of city against fire or other casualty and hereby designates the Utilities Manager as his or her agent or attorney in fact to collect from the insurance carrier, in the event of the loss or destruction of the meter or service wire by fire or other casualty, from the proceeds payable to customer out of any policy of insurance in which he or she is made beneficiary affecting the premises where the meter or service wire is located, the reasonable value of the meter or service wire, and deduct the value from payment to be made to the insured under the policy; provided that, if the customer carries no insurance on the premises or contents of the premises or place where the meter is set, the customer hereby consents and agrees to reimburse the city for the reasonable value of such meter or service wire in the event of destruction by fire or other casualty.
(Prior Code, § 52-42)
All electric current furnished customers of the city shall be measured by meters of a type as approved by the Utilities Manager. Accounts between the customer and the city shall be kept under a bookkeeping system as shall be provided by the Utilities Manager. All meters shall be read monthly and the electric service meter readings shall be delivered to the Utilities Manager for billing and collection by his or her Department. Statements of monthly electric service bills shall be mailed or delivered to customers each month. All customers shall pay in net cash to the Manager, at his or her office in the city’s Water and Light Building, the amount due the city for electric service or other proper charges due the city for any month. If the customer shall neglect or refuse to pay his or her bill within 10 days after the mailing date designated on his or her bill, the bill shall be considered delinquent. If the bill is not paid by 7 days following mailing of the cutoff notice, service may be discontinued and disconnected until all amounts in arrears are paid in full, together with a fee equivalent to a 1-hour charge at the regular labor charge rate set by the city for the resumption of service.
(Prior Code, § 52-43)
The city shall have the power and authority to contract with any person, including other municipalities, to sell electric current for light, heat, power or other purposes beyond the corporate limits of the city when it is beneficial to the city to do so. For furnishing the electric service outside the corporate limits to other municipalities, other public service companies or government authorities for purposes of resale, the rates shall be set by the city; provided that, the contract rate made in such cases shall be uniform insofar as it affects the users of equal amounts of current under the contracts under similar circumstances.
(Prior Code, § 52-45)
All electric service deposits, when received by the city, shall be held separate and apart in a fund to be known as the Electric Service Deposit Fund. This Fund is a trust fund for customers of electric service from the city, and may be invested by the city as other idle or surplus funds under its jurisdiction are invested, and such rate of interest per annum may be paid to the beneficiaries of the fund as the city may determine from time to time. When, for any reason, electric service is no longer required, the service deposit shall, upon demand, be returned to the customer by the Utilities Manager, with proper deductions for unpaid service charges and other arrearages due the city. The Utilities Manager shall give each applicant or customer a separate receipt for all service deposits received by this Department.
(Prior Code, § 52-46)
Any person desiring to cut or remove trees or branches thereof, or to fell trees or branches thereof, in close proximity to the lines of the electric distribution system of the city, and which work might cause injury or damage to the lines thereof, shall, before doing the work, give reasonable notice to the Utilities Manager, and shall secure permission from the Utilities Manager so to do, and shall seek the assistance of the city to do the work so that electric service shall not be interrupted or damage done to the lines or property of the city. Any person felling or removing the trees, or branches of trees, resulting in the interruption of electric service or damage to the lines or property of the city, without having given notice to the city as provided in this section, and without having received the permission from the Utilities Manager to do so as provided in this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in this chapter. Nothing contained in this section is intended to relieve any person of liability for damage to property of the city.
(Prior Code, § 52-48) Penalty, see § 51.99
Whenever it becomes necessary to protect the lines or property of the electric distribution system of the city, the city or the Utilities Manager shall have the right to remove and cut away, in a careful and prudent manner, interfering branches or limbs of trees, so that its lines shall be free and open.
(Prior Code, § 52-49)
Any person who shall wilfully or carelessly break, injure or deface, interfere with or disturb any machinery, apparatus, fixture, attachment or appurtenance of the electric generating plant or distribution system of the city, or who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter or of the rules and regulations of the city legally adopted, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in § 50.99.
(Prior Code, § 52-50)