§ 70-144. Atlanta Gas Light Company.

(a)

Atlanta Gas Light Company, referred to as the grantee, its successors and assigns, have been granted a franchise to occupy the public streets and public places of the city, to distribute, construct and maintain pipes, mains and appurtenances necessary for the manufacturing, transmitting, distributing and selling of natural or commingled gas in the city.

(b)

The franchise shall be effective from August 1972 until August 2012.

(c)

The grantee shall be entitled to charge for gas furnished by it such rates as are prescribed by the public service commission or other lawful regulatory body of the state.

(d)

The grantee shall pay to the city during the term of the franchise within 60 days following the end of each quarterly period the percentage as set forth below of gas sales receipts received by the grantee during the preceding quarterly period from residential and commercial but not industrial customers, governmental, or nonprofit educational institutions within the city:

First year ..... 1%

Second year ..... 1½%

Third year ..... 2%

Fourth year ..... 2½%

Fifth year and thereafter ..... 3%

(e)

Should the city require the grantee to pay any license fee or tax, franchise tax, excise tax, indirect tax, occupation tax, privilege tax, regulation charge or related fees, taxes or charges, excepting ad valorem taxes, the aggregate amount of such fees, taxes and charges shall be deducted in full by Atlanta Gas Light Company from the quarterly payments subsequently accruing to the city. Such quarterly payments shall not start until the first day of the second month following the introduction of natural gas into the grantee's distribution system. The city council, through its authorized representative, shall have the right to inspect and audit the books and records of the grantee for the purpose of determining the amount of its revenues received from the sale of gas to residential and commercial, but not industrial customers within the territorial limits.

(f)

Industrial gas or gas sold to industrial customers, as to which the grantee shall pay no part of its revenue to the city as consideration for the contract, is defined to be gas sold to manufacturing, assembling and processing businesses such as textile and cotton mills, brick and tile manufacturers, glass manufacturing plants, cement plants, foundries, electric generating plants, steel and other metal plants, cotton oil mills, ice plants, bottling plants and other manufacturing plants, automobile and other assembling plants, kaolin processing plants, rubber processing plants, meat packing plants, laundries, bakeries, dairies, food processing plants, and other processing plants, governmental institutions, and nonprofit educational institutions, and generally, without limiting the foregoing, all gas for use in industrial and manufacturing processes.

(g)

The grantee, upon making an opening upon any of the streets, avenues, roads, public highways, alleys, lanes, ways, parks and other public places in the city, for the purpose of laying, repairing or maintaining gas mains, shall use due care and caution to prevent injury to persons and shall replace and restore all public ways to their former condition as nearly as practicable, and within a reasonable time, and shall not unnecessarily obstruct or impede traffic upon the streets, avenues, roads, public highways, alleys, lanes, ways, parks and other public places of the city.

(h)

The grantee shall save and keep harmless the city from any and all liability by reason of damage or injury to any person on account of negligence of the grantee in the installation, maintenance and repair of its mains and pipelines along the streets, avenues, roads, public highways, alleys, lanes, ways, parks and other public places in the city provided the grantee shall have been notified in writing of any claim against the city on account of such work and shall have been given ample opportunity to defend such work.

(i)

The grantee shall have the right to renew the franchise on the same terms and conditions for additional periods of ten years each after the initial 40-year term by giving notice to the city clerk not less than 90 days prior to the expiration of the initial term and of each renewal term, of its intention to renew, and approval of such renewal by action of the council, which renewal or renewals shall be entirely optional and in the discretion of the city council.

(Code 1979, § 4-105(2))