Webster City has signed on to a municipal utilities organization’s plan to upgrade electrical transmission lines.

The deal doesn’t require Webster City to pay out any money up front. When the project is completed, the city will receive 19.72 percent of any dividends earned through the use of the new transmission lines. It will also gain a potential new source of electricity.

There is a potential downside. If the North Iowa Municipal Electric Cooperative Association defaults on the loans used to finance the new transmission lines, Webster City would have to pay 19.72 percent of the debt.

The majority of the council was in favor of signing onto the Combined Transmission Systems Improvement Agreement.

”I feel it’s a smart move for Webster City,” Councilman Logan Welch said.

Councilman Jim Talbot wasn’t in favor of the agreement. He said the other 12 northern Iowa cities that are association members want Webster City to join simply to share the potential costs.

”We are in a very risky situation,” he said.

The council voted 4-1 to join the agreement. Mayor John Hawkins and councilmen Matt McKinney, Brian Miller and Welch voted yes. Talbot voted no.

During its April 2 meeting the council voted 4-1 to approve the general concept of joining the agreement. Talbot cast the lone dissenting vote during that meeting.

With Monday’s vote, the council gave formal approval to the thick stack of documents that make up the agreement.

Webster City, a longtime member of the association, has a municipal electric utility that buys power from Corn Belt Power Cooperative. That cooperative is planning the major upgrade of the transmission lines.

In other business, the council heard another complaint related to the upcoming reconstruction of the intersection of Fair Meadow Drive and Superior Street.

Jeff VanHorn, of 112 Edgewood Drive, said he doesn’t think the concrete medians should remain, even in an altered form.

VanHorn said he visited City Manager Daniel Ortiz-Hernandez at his office recently and asked for statistics about crashes at the intersection, but didn’t get any answers.

”It wasn’t possible to communicate with you,” Ortiz-Hernandez said Monday. ”I was trying to explain the project to you and nothing could get through to you.”

Welch asked that VanHorn be given the crash statistics.

Welch, who was in favor of removing the medians, told VanHorn that ”the majority of the council has moved forward.”

”I don’t believe it should be moved forward,” VanHorn replied.

The project includes creating a wider turning radius on all four sides of the intersection, creating a right turn lane for southbound traffic on Superior Street and maintaining a left turn lane and a lane for traffic heading straight south on Superior Street.

The council is expected to award a contract for the work during its May 21 meeting.

Kwik Trip, which plans to build a new convenience store west of the intersection on Fair Meadow Drive, has agreed to pay $412,800 for the project.