Some people are quick to sing praises of municipally owned systems, and when they are large enough to be operated on par with cooperative and investor-owned systems, they are just fine. More often than not, out here in the northern plains, many of the municipally owned systems are small shoestring affairs whose main goal is just to keep the lights on. Even so, some of these don't even have the budget for a full-time lineman so they either contract out the work or make do the best they can. The construction in this town is an example of the latter; the condition of the system is such that it REALLY needs a professional rebuild - whether overhead or underground! (Thankfully, on a return trip a few years later, I find the secondary neutral had been moved from the transformer bushing down to the bolt behind the streetlight!)