PUD works on water, other issues

The Wahkiakum PUD met Tuesday to discuss water and other issues.

Bill Chamberlain, water department supervisor, gave an update about local water systems. He said that due to the recent freezing temperatures, many small leaks have been detected. He said that crews installed meters around main line valves to isolate where the leaks are coming from.

He indicated the leaks are minimal, in most cases, they are barely showing up in tests, but he is still searching for a larger leak.

Manager David Tramblie told Chamberlain and the board there is a one day class available to train PUD employees to use GPS equipment for leak detection. Chamberlain said it would be very handy to have that available.

He told the board that there are about a half a dozen customers in a vital situation. These customers are using pad mount transformers and the PUD currently has no backup incase these transformers break or quit working.

Tramblie said he likes the idea of having something available, and he is in the process of speaking to vendors and neighboring utilities to see if something would be available in case of emergency. He was told that things would be checked into, but hasn’t heard the outcome at this time. Tramblie indicated he would research the matter to find a viable solution.

Auditor Erin Wilson returned from a Human Resources conference in Portland and said she felt it was a pretty good experience. She said she got a lot of good information about interviewing practices and hiring practices. She said she learned a better way to set up personnel files of employees and learned good record keeping practices.

Because of the lack of a human resources department, a lot of the responsibility falls to her. She said that this conference helped her to learn good practices. She said that she felt fortunate that they didn’t have to deal with a lot of the problems that other facilities seem to have.

Wilson said they have completed their state audit and things went pretty well. She said that she learned that the financials were not in the correct format, but she learned a lot and the whole system is a good process.

Commissioner Robert Jungers told the board about legislation he found interesting in the state of Georgia. He said that the borders surveyed in 1710 are about a mile off from the Tennessee border. The state of Georgia, he said would like to move a mile north, reason being, Atlanta is running low on water. They get their water from the Chattahoochee River, which is running low. He said that the border being moved, the Tennessee River could be used as a resource. “Wars of the future will be fought over water!” he said.

PUD Commissioner Larry Reese told the board that his recent trip to Houston for an energy conference was great, but he said he wished to table it to a future meeting so the whole board could be present.

The next meeting of the PUD will be March 18 at 8:30 a.m.