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Show Reid Gardner Discusses 'Electric Power' At Rotary Club Dinner Reid Gardner, manager of the Southern Utah Power company, was the guest speaker at the St. George Rotary club last Friday. Mr. Gardner chose as his subject sub-ject "Electric Power", discussing the subject as a "Classification talk", as a fellow Rotarian. In opening his talk Mr. Gardner pointed out that an electric company com-pany was a monoply just as the telephone, railroads, bus lines or St. George water system. But, while it was a monoply, it was under strict supervision as to rates, miality of service and could not discriminate in any way That while the profits were hmit-i hmit-i Continued on page ten) Reid Gardner Speaks (Continued from first page) ed by the state commission, they were not guaranteed a profit and were permitted only to make a fair return op their money. He explained that it was a business just as any other business and as such was organized to make a profit. Mr. Gardner reviewed the history his-tory of the power in St. George from the days of the first plant down to the present and told of the various transactions and their results, including the lawsuit of the city against the Dixie Power company and the decision of the Public Utilities commission and state supreme court that "the state has the right to regulate rates even though the company and city have a contract covering rates". A comparison of the original rates was given by Mr. Gardner showing that the present rates are lower from 21 to 56 per cent, according to the amount of elec tricity used. He also compared local rates with those of the average for the state declaring that the average cost for residential resi-dential service in 1938 was $3.98 of an average bill of $38.56. He compared this with the state average of $3.86 or $39.02. Arizona Ari-zona residential service averages $5.01 or $43.69 while Colorado's runs $5.21 and $34.02 with New Mexico S6.ll and $54.13 and Nevada $4.16 and $46.26. Study Boulder Power Mr. Gardner claimed that his company had made a careful study of the possibilities of bringing bring-ing Boulder power into this state and stated that Nevada couldn't sell the power, but that California Califor-nia could and that it would be possible to purchase it. However, he stated that the power would have to be brought from Moapa, a distance of 82 miles, because that was as far as a large enough line had been run to carry the power that would be needed to deliver the necessary power in this section. According to Mr. Gardner this would cost in the neighborhood of $240,000. His figures indicated that it would be cheaper and more feasible for his company to connect with the Boulder power -at Gold Springs: that the cost from there would be approximately S175.000. He also pointed out that there would be only one line providing service ser-vice and that this had never proved satisfactory. Mr. Gardner cited the fact that the power company was one of the largest tax payers in the county and employed em-ployed a considerable number of people. Following his talk he answered questions asked him by those present. |