PUD funds 6-year plan for Western Wahkiakum Water

Wahkiakum Public Utility District board of commissioners voted Tuesday to fund a comprehensive plan for the Western Wahkiakum Water System as required by the state Department of Health.

The board planned to meet in its first workshop session, to be continued from its second regular meeting of the month on May 17 in the PUD meeting room at 5:00 p.m.

Commissioners want extra time to discuss general planning and future directions, said board member Bob Jungers. The board will not take public comment and they don’t expect staff to attend, but the workshop is an open meeting, and the public may attend.

Buzz Ketcham, representing the board’s electrical engineering firm, Brown and Kyzer, visited to thank the PUD for its business since 1997 and to describe additional work the firm can provide.

Ketcham, who is also a Cowlitz PUD commissioner, said the company provides PR services, useful since the board may find it “hard to blow its own horn.”

The board handled routine business related to having new commissioner Gene Healy appointed.

Healy was sworn in last Thursday at PUD attorney Tim Hanigan’s office with his wife, Karen, present. Dennis Reid will continue as president of the board, Healy will be vice-president and Bob Jungers will continue as secretary.

The board awarded a contract to its water engineering firm, Gray and Osborne, to develop a six-year comprehensive plan for the Western Wahkiakum Water System for $22,000.

Commissioner Jungers said the fee amounts to one dollar per connection for the six years the plan covers.

“We’re going to have to look at financial health of the district and it’s going to be a bitter pill,” he said.

“It’s hard to have so few people on the system,” Reid said, referring to the system’s 315 customers.

The payment for the plan will take the water district’s reserves below the $40,000 level set by board policy. General Manager Dave Tramblie said he has ideas about how to improve the water district’s cash flow. The board discussed various financing options to reduce the payments on a $360,000 USDA loan. The repayment period is now 30 years. The board will revisit the issue. The system also has a water leak which may be under the Grays River, which staff is working to resolve.

Tramblie explained that the 17 minute power outage Sunday was the result of a faulty lightening arrester, and the problem has been resolved.

The board met in executive session to discuss potential litigation as it relates to the Bonneville Power Administration Residential Exchange Program settlement.

The settlement agreement will resolve the rates paid by public utilities and investor owned utilities. The PUD board voted to support the proposed settlement in March, but the settlement agreement failed overall.