74TH CONGRESS 1st Session } SENATE { REPORT No. 529 RATIFY AND CONFIRM THE CORPORATE EXISTENCE OF THE CITY OF NOME, ALASKA, AND TO AUTHORIZE IT TO UNDERTAKE CERTAIN MUNICIPAL PUBLIC WORKS, AND FOR SUCH PURPOSES TO ISSUE BONDS IN ANY SUM NOT EXCEEDING $100,000 APRIL 15 (calendar day, APRIL 18), 1935.-Ordered to be printed Mr. BONE, from the Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 2317] The Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2317) ratifying and confirming the corporate existence of the city of Nome, Alaska, authorizing it to undertake certain municipal public works, and for such purposes to issue bonds in any sum not exceeding $100,000, having considered the same, report favorably thereon, and recommend that the bill do pass with the following amendment: On page 6, line 4, after "purpose," insert "including the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935,". The purposes of this bill are set out in full in the House Report No. 390, Seventy-fourth Congress, which accompanied H. R. 5707, a companion measure to this bill, and which report is incorporated herein and made a part of this report. [H. Rept. 390, 74th Cong., 1st sess.] The city of Nome is situated on Seward Peninsula in the northwestern part of the Territory. The population of the city, as shown by the 1930 census, was 1,213. The city is the main center of distribution for the entire Seward Peninsula and a large part of the surrounding regions. The principal industry is placer gold mining which is now, since the price of the metal has advanced from $20.67 an ounce to $35 an ounce, increasing in importance. Nome is also the center of the reindeer industry of Seward Peninsula, and there is a considerable trade in walrus ivory and furs. The fishing industry in the surrounding waters is being developed. On September 17, 1934, Nome suffered from a disastrous fire which destroyed practically the entire business section of the community. It is now necessary to rebuild and, upon the facts shown to the committee, such rebuilding is wholly justified. The city has applied to the P. W. A. for a loan and grant under the National Industrial Recovery Act, but no loan can be made unless Congress authorizes the city to incur the necessary indebtedness and issue bonds therefor. Hence this bill. Report on the measure was requested of the Secretary of the Interior who replied, under date of March 13, 1935, as follows: Hon. R. A. GREEN, Chairman Committee on the Territories, WASHINGTON, March 13, 1935. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. GREEN: I have received your letter of February 21 requesting a report on H. R. 5707, to ratify and confirm the corporate existence of the city of Nome, Alaska, and to authorize it to undertake certain municipal public works and to issue bonds for such purposes not to exceed $100,000. In the bill the following maximum amounts are stipulated for specified purposes: $15,000 for construction and improvement of sewers and drains; $35,000 for a fire-fighting system; $12,000 for streets and alleys; $20,770 for sidewalks, curbs, and gutters; and $17,230 for a municipal building. It further provides that all bond issues shall be general obligations of the city of Nome, principal and interest to be payable from tax funds collected through an ad valorem tax levied upon the taxable property. The issue of any bonds must be approved by a majority of the voters voting at special elections. The bill makes stipulations regarding the date of maturity of the bonds and the rate of interest. The city is authorized to enter into a contract with the Federal Government for the sale of bonds issued under this act. The city of Nome is recovering from the disastrous fire of September 17, 1934. This act enables the city to provide for the repair and construction of instruments of public service essential to its rehabilitation, plans and surveys for which have been completed. Because of the provisions of the Organic Act (Aug. 24, 1912, ch. 387, vol. 1, 37 Stat. 512), the authority of a municipality in Alaska to assume bonded indebtedness is dependent upon congressional action. The passage of this bill in consequence is basic to the recovery of Nome, and the development of the area dependent upon it. I would therefore recommend that H. R. 5707 be passed without amendment. Sincerely yours, HAROLD L. ICKES, 1931. 1932. 1933. 1934. 21, 841. 19 $26, 811.62 $25, 521.02 29,906, 31 22, 836. 34 27, 338. 44 23, 503. 66 25, 269.00 27, 580.09 131, 450. 89 129, 347.42 Assessed valuation of taxable property (based on 100-percent ratio) The city has no sinking fund, floating indebtedness, assessment district overlapping the jurisdiction of city, outstanding obligations, or gross funded debt. The provision in section 1 of the bill ratifying and confirming the corporate existence and present boundaries of the city of Nome is made necessary, or at least advisable, by the destruction of the official records, concerning such incorporation and boundaries in the fire of September 17, 1934, above mentioned. 74TH CONGRESS 1st Session SENATE { REPORT No. 530 MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC SYSTEM FOR SEWARD, ALASKA APRIL 15 (calendar day, APRIL 18, 1936).—Ordered to be printed Mr. BONE, from the Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 3808] The Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 3808) to authorize the incorporated town of Seward, Alaska, to undertake certain municipal public works, including the construction of an electric generating station and electric distribution systems, and for such purposes to issue bonds in any sum not exceeding $118,000, having considered the same, report favorably thereon and recommend that the bill do pass with the following amendments: Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof the following: That the incorporated town of Seward, Territory of Alaska, is hereby authorized and empowered, (a) by contract or contracts, or by its own agents and employees, or otherwise than by contract, to construct a municipal electric system, together with all parts thereof and appurtenances thereto necessary or convenient for the generation, production, transmission, and distribution of electric energy, and to acquire by gift, purchase, or the exercise of the power of eminent domain, lands, easements, or rights in land or water rights in connection therewith; (b) to operate and maintain said system for its own use and benefit and for the use and benefit of public and private consumers or users within and without the territorial boundaries of said town; (c) to issue its bonds to finance in whole or in part the cost of the construction of said system; (d) to prescribe and collect rates, fees, or charges for the services, facilities and commodities furnished by said system; (e) to pledge to the punctual payment of said bonds and interest thereon all or any part of the gross or net revenues of said system (including improvements, betterments, or extensions thereto thereafter constructed or acquired); (f) to enter into contracts with the United States of America or any Federal agency created or continued by or pursuant to the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935; and (g) to subscribe to and comply with all rules and regulations prescribed or continued by the President of the United States of America pursuant to the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. The common council of said town in determining the cost of the construction of said system may include all costs and estimated costs of the issuance of said bonds, all engineering, inspection, fiscal and legal expenses, and interest which it is esti mated will accrue during the construction period and for six months thereafter on money borrowed or which it is estimated will be borrowed pursuant to this Act. SEC. 2. The construction of said system may be authorized under this Act, and bonds may be authorized to be issued under this Act by resolution or resolutions of the common council of said town. Said bonds shall bear interest at such rate or rates not exceeding 6 percentum per annum, payable semiannually, may be in one or more series, may bear such date or dates, may mature at such time or times not exceeding forty years from their respective dates, may be payable in such medium of payment, at such place or places, may carry such registration privileges, may be subject to such terms of redemption, with or without premium, may be executed in such manner, may be in such form, either coupon or registered, may contain such terms, covenants, and conditions, and may be declared or become due before the maturity date thereof, as such resolution or subsequent resolutions may provide. Said bonds shall be sold for not less than par and may be sold at either public or private sale. Pending the preparation of the definitive bonds, interim receipts or certificates in such form and with such provisions as the Common Council of said town may determine, may be issued to the purchaser or purchasers of bonds sold pursuant to this Act. Said bonds and interim receipts or certificates shall be negotiable for all purposes. Said bonds bearing the signatures of officers in office on the date of the signing thereof shall be valid and binding obligations, notwithstanding that before the delivery thereof and payment therefor any or all the persons whose signatures appear thereon shall have ceased to be officers of the town. SEC. 3. Any resolution or resolutions authorizing the issuance of bonds under this Act may contain covenants as to (a) the purpose or purposes to which the proceeds of sale of said bonds may be applied and the use and disposition thereof, (b) the use and disposition of the revenue of said system, including the creation and maintenance of reserves, (c) the transfer from the general funds of the town to the account or accounts of said system a sum or sums of money for furnishing such town or any of its departments, boards, or agencies with the services, facilities, and commodities of said system, (d) the issuance of other or additional bonds payable from the revenue of said system, (e) the operation and maintenance of said system, (f) the issuance to be carried thereon and the use and disposition of insurance moneys, (g) books of account and the inspection and audit thereof, and (h) the terms and conditions upon which the holders of said bonds or any proportion of them or any trustee therefor shall be entitled to the appointment of a receiver by the District Court for the Territory of Alaska, which court shall have jurisdiction in such proceedings, and which receiver may enter and take possession of said system, operate and maintain the same, prescribe rates, fees, or charges, and collect, receive and apply all revenue thereafter arising therefrom in the same manner as the town itself might do. The provisions of this Act and any such resolution or resolutions shall be a contract with the holder or holders of said bonds, and the duties of the town and of its common council and officers under this Act and any such resolution or resolutions shall be enforceable by any bondholder, by mandamus or other appropriate suit, action, or proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction. SEC. 4. The common council of said town shall prescribe and collect reasonable rates, fees, or charges for the services, facilities and commodities of said system, and shall revise such rates, fees, or charges from time to time whenever necessary so that said system shall be and always remain self-supporting. The rates, fees, or charges prescribed shall be such as will produce revenue at least sufficient (a) to pay when due all bonds and interest thereon, for the payment of which such revenue is or shall have been pledged, charged or otherwise encumbered, including reserves therefor, and (b) to provide for all expenses of operation and maintenance of said system, including reserves therefor. SEC. 5. No holder of any bond issued under this Act shall have the right to compel the levy of a tax by said town to pay the principal of or interest on such bonds. All bonds issued under this Act shall be payable solely from the revenues pledged to the payment thereof and shall contain a recital to that effect. Such bonds may be issued notswithtanding any debt or other limitation or restriction prescribed by any other law. SEC. 6. This Act shall become effective thirty days after its passage: Provided, however, That none of the powers herein granted to the said town of Seward, Alaska, shall be exercised by said town in the event that the Seward Light and Power Company, a corporation, shall, within one week after a copy of this Act is served on said Seward Light and Power Company, offer in writing to sell and convey to the said town of Seward all its right, title, and interest in and to its electric generating plant or plants, electric distributing system, pipe lines, and water rights now owned by it and used and employed in supplying electric energy to the inhabitants of said town, said offer of sale to be for the sum of $75,000, and to provide that delivery of title shall be made to said town within six months from date of said written offer of sale: Provided, further That said offer and agreement to sell must be delivered by said Seward Light and Power Company to the town clerk of the said town of Seward. Service of copy of this Act on the Seward Light and Power Company shall be made by delivery thereof to its president, Mr. S. M. Graff, or any other officer of the corporation: And provided further, That in the event the said Seward Light and Power Company offers to sell and convey its properties as provided for in this section, the said town is authorized to purchase such properties and to issue bonds for such purpose in an amount not to exceed $75,000, such bonds to be issued in the manner provided for in this Act. Amend the title so as to read: An act concerning the incorporated town of Seward, Territory of Alaska. The incorporated town of Seward, Alaska, desires to construct and install an electric generating station and electric distribution systems. and for such purpose to issue its general obligation bonds. The town is now being served by a privately owned electric light and power plant; but the mayor of the town, who appeared before the committee, states that the service given is unsatisfactory, that the rates are exceedingly high, that the capacity of the private plant is so small as to render it impossible for that plant to fairly supply the town with electric current and that in years past the existing plant has entirely failed to give service at some time during almost every winter, and that the development of the town is being held up by the lack of a plentiful supply of electric current at reasonable rates. Mr. Don Carlos Brownell, the mayor of the town, further advises that the passage of this bill will not work a confiscation of the private plant, since the private plant will still be able to compete with the city provided its rates are reduced to a reasonable figure and that the private company also owns the telephone system in the town and that the persons employed to operate the telephone system also perform services in connection with the functions of the electric plant. Furthermore, section 6 of the bill, as amended in committee, provides that the owner of such private plant may offer to sell such plant, including its distributing system, pipe lines, and water rights, to the town for the sum of $75,000 if he so desires, in which case, the powers granted in the bill to such town to construct its own electric system shall not be exercised. The town of Seward is situated at the head of Resurrection Bay on the southern coast of Alaska and is the seaboard terminus of the Alaska Railroad. Its population as shown by the 1930 census was 835. The estimated population in 1933 is given at 1,020. Resurrection Bay is a harbor open all the year round, about 10 miles long and 3 miles wide. The town is served weekly by steamships of the Alaska Steamship Co. plying from Seattle, Wash. It is also headquarters of the vessel which holds the mail contract for service along the Alaska Peninsula and to Bristol Bay points. A salmon cannery and a coldstorage plant are located at Seward as well as large storage tanks for gasoline, oil, and similar products. An orphanage maintained and operated by the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which provides housing and care for approximately 125 native children, is located in the town. A public-school building |