OCR Text |
Show appttaeifr ' fund along with an emergency reserve re-serve account helps to make this - finance program work," he said. .The council also approved monthly appropriation of $25,000 from the power department into an emergency reserve account for emergency . and natural disasters with the city-owned power plant and its facilities, '.. Mr. Michaelis said the power department has paid for a large 7-megawatt 7-megawatt engine, construction of a hydro-electric power plant and facilities j at Echo Reservoir, and construction of a 26-mile 44-kw transmission line from Echo and East Canyon Reservoirs to Bountiful: Boun-tiful: - The power department presently ,. has a reserve fund of about $2.5 " million, the plant manager said. Construction on the power house for the Pineview Reservoir will," begin next spring and be completed the following spring. East Canyon . Reservoir hydroelectric plant will be delayed for a year or two, but should be on line within a few years, Mr. Michaelis explained. Both hydro-electric plants will cost approximately $3.5 million and generate 2 megawatts of power. Mr. Michaelis told the council that there are some concerns about the foundation of the Pineview dam structure and extensive tests are being be-ing conducted by the Bureau of' Reclamation. : He said ground tests as well as structural tests are being conducted to be certain of the stability of the dam before construction begins on the hydro-electric plant about 500 feet downstream. . ' 'We don't feel that there are any serious problems, but there may have to be some relocation of penstocks or other pipes which are in place about halfway to the site of the proposed control plant," Mr. Michaelis explained. '. By GARY R. BLODCETT ' . BOUNTIFUL - The Bountiful City Council has approved ap-propriation ap-propriation of $175,666 per month from the Bountiful Power and Light Department into a reserve fund for development of future power sources without need for bonding. "This is a continuation of a pn -gram that the power company has had for the past several years," said ' power plant manager Clifford Michaelis, who explained that a huge bonding program was paid off last December through funds allocated to the reserve fund. HWe are now in a pay-as-you-go situation for most purchases, and. repairs required by the power department," he said. "It's much more economical to save the surplus money and have it available when needed than to borrow the funds over a long period and pay interest in-terest on the loan." : He noted that the reserve money will be set aside to pay costs of the Pineview Reservoir hydro-electric power plant in Ogden Canyon, construction con-struction of a 300-mile transmission line from Craig, Colo., to Mona, Utah, and futuredevelopment of East Canyon and Joe's Valley hydro-electric facilities. 1: "All of these hydro-electric plants will be city-owned and will provide low-cost hydro-electric power to Bountiful for many, many years," said Mr. Michaelis. "But they are costly to build, and use of surplus money for these projects is essential." City Manager Tom Hardy explained ex-plained that because of Bountiful 's surplus funds created through the power department, the city has been able to maintain a low power rate to customers (about 50 percent below Utah Power and Light Company), and to build and maintain its own facilities. "Bountiful also has the, lowest overall debt service per capita of any city in Utah with a population over 20,000," said Mr. Hardy. He - said the city's total debt is between $5X,000 and $600,000. ; . . "Bountiful takes a very conservative conser-vative approach to financing, and building up a future development |