A storm of controversy erupted more over lighted, talking signs in town than the October storm that caused $370,000 in damage to the Piedmont Hills underground utility district.

The Oct. 13-14 heavy rains damaged 200 trees and caused 10 to be removed all together. Sand surrounding conduits in the 5-foot-deep trenches was washed away, sidewalks were damaged, portions of trenches collapsed and floodwaters damaged much of the work that had been done on hilly Crest Road.

The original construction cost for the project was paid for by residents in the Piedmont Hills underground district. The city is having to pay for the repairs due to the storm, an "act of nature."

Piedmont was able to negotiate with contractor Valley Utility to redo the damaged areas for $296,000, a cost savings of $74,000. The money comes from the city sewer fund. The City Council this week approved the appropriation with minimal discussion.

Extra steps will be taken to stabilize the trenches including concrete "dams" every 75 feet to catch and divert water with catch basins during rainfall.

"The trench dam should solve the problem on Crest and hopefully handle any storm in the future," Public Works Director Larry Rosenberg told the council.

He added that sufficient funds remain in the sewer fund for other projects. City engineer John Wanger said larger grain sand will be used to refill trenches; gravity feeds for water runoff will minimize future

Talking, electronic signs such as those that were posted at the Valero station on Highland Avenue generated heated discussion. The council was divided on determining if ATMs were the same as advertising monitors that relay weather, traffic and other information at gas stations.

In November, the council asked that a proposed sign ordinance be modified to treat automatic teller machines as audible electronic advertising, similar to the gas station talking monitors. If so, should ATMs be turned off after business hours, the council debated. The discussion took a convoluted path then, and got tense during Monday night's meeting.

"I don't appreciate the insults," Mayor Abe Friedman told Councilman Dean Barbieri, who thinks the talking monitors are a blight on the city. "You have insulted me and Margaret (Fujioka) 17 times."

City Administrator Geoff Grote tried to refocus the council by polling them on their positions. Three favored turning off gas station monitors by about midnight. Two others thought advertising monitors should be shut down at close of business hours.

The council asked city planner Kate Black to investigate regulations in other cities that cover ATMs advertising before they would vote on any amended ordinance.

The Valero station currently has no advertising monitors because the company that supplied them went out of business. But owner Simon Ho is looking into obtaining monitors from another company. The monitors provide advertising revenue, Ho said.