(Spirit Lake)– It’s something that’s been researched in the past, and may be again.
The Spirit Lake city council Tuesday was requested to look into the possibility of establishing a municipal utility system…especially for electricity. Fred Dowden told the city council a window is about to open for the city to decide whether or not to renew its franchise for Alliant Energy. Dowden says utility costs here are much higher than those in other communities that have municipal systems in place.
Dowden’s request was taken under advisement.
A similar study several years ago by several alkes area cities into the possibility of establishing a municipal cable television system showed it wouldn’t be feasible atleast in some parts of the lakes area due to geographical and logistical issues.
The Spirit Lake city council also Tuesday reviewed the city’s audit report for the 2007 fiscal year. Tom Hinrichsen of Winther Stave and Company told the council the slightly more than seven million dollars spent on capital projects continued to hurt the city’s general fund, which is already reeling from a large debt.
Even though the situation is better than it was in the previous fiscal year, Hinrichsen recommended the city cut back on such projects to ease the impact.
He adds the fact the city was able to put some tax increment finance districts back onto tax rolls helped ease the impact on the General Fund.
