Council discusses street‑light maintenance, who pays for underground wire repairs under proposed franchise agreement

Lincoln City Council discussed a proposed street‑light maintenance and franchise agreement with Capital Electric during its Jan. 9, 2025, meeting, focusing on who would pay for pole replacement and underground secondary‑wire repairs and how residents would report outages.

The issue matters because the contractor said the maintenance contract being negotiated would cover routine service but not the cost of replacing poles or repairing underground secondary wires — repairs that can require boring and trenching and be costly in older parts of the city. Paul, a representative of Capital Electric, told the council the agreement “does not cover the cost of an repair or replacement of the poles for the underground secondary wires,” and warned that some repairs could generate substantial, unbudgeted bills. Council members repeatedly asked whether the vendor would supply materials or only perform installation work.

Councilwoman Davis pressed for clarification on materials versus labor. “Is the service agreement that city pays for that piece of equipment and you do the installation, or are you paying for the piece of equipment in the installation?” she asked. Paul said his understanding was that the city would purchase and stock material items such as the full fixture and bulb, and Capital Electric would perform installation and related labor as a service contract.

Council members also asked about a web form to allow residents to report outages. Capital Electric said it could provide a module on its own site but preferred the city host a reporting form on the city website so residents would submit issues through municipal channels; the company would receive email notifications from that system for its dispatching.

City staff and Council members asked Legal and administration to review several clauses, including indemnification language and the contract’s cancellation and funding language. Staff said they would meet with outside counsel and the vendor to propose clearer language that does not obligate the city to future expenditures. The council did not take a final vote on the agreement at the Jan. 9 meeting and directed staff to return with revised contract language.

Capital Electric and city staff also discussed transitions in neighborhoods where wooden utility poles will be replaced with concrete poles and how Capital Electric intends to coordinate bore-and‑trench work across multiple properties to limit repeated digs.

The council requested clearer, unambiguous language in the contract addressing (1) whether the city or the vendor pays for replacement fixtures and bulbs; (2) explicit allocation of responsibility and costs for underground secondary‑wire repairs and pole replacements; and (3) details about the web‑based outage reporting workflow. Staff said they will bring the revised agreement back to the council for further consideration.