PUD hears reports, recomendation on system maintenance

Wahkiakum PUD employee Lia Sealund presented her findings of a recent conservation program at Wahkiakum School District to the PUD commissioners during their July 2 meeting.

The school district, in partnership with the PUD and the Bonneville Power Administration, completed phase one of a two-part project to increase energy efficiency to all three buildings as well as the bus garage.

Installation of all phase one measures, which included weatherization, heating and other controls, was completed by January 30. Sealund has been studying data since that time and projects a savings of 173,774 kilowatt hours annually, which will translate to an annual sales reduction of approximately $12,000 a year.

Phase Two will focus on lighting.

“Projected savings, if they install all the lighting will be just under 204,000 kilowatt hours per year in the lighting alone,” said Sealund.

When phases one and two are complete, the projected reduction is expected to reach 377,374 kilowatt hours per year.

“Essentially it reaches all of our rate payers, said Commissioner Robert Jungers, “because all of our rate payers are property tax payers that finance the school.”

Discussion turned to the potential of eventually acquiring technology that could detect and track leaks in the water system.

Commissioner Dennis Reid suggested a cost of living allowance at budget time for the general manager and the auditor.

“The union people have gotten a raise every single year,” said Reid, “these people don’t. At least the cost of living allowance is supposed to keep you up with the rate of inflation and so I would like to see that become an annual thing. It would just happen when that rate comes out from the government. Pay raises are a separate thing, based on performance.”

General Manager Dave Tramblie reported on the electrical project on 2nd Street in Cathlamet and the completion of the installation of 4-inch PVC pipes on Altoona Road.

“The water guys are doing maintenance on the west end; the reservoir, the water plant, routine things,” he said.

At a recent meeting, Tramblie learned that Bonneville’s projected rate increase is about 9.6 percent.

“There is a reasonable possibility of our overall rate increase being close to that,” he said.

Tramblie presented some of his thoughts on a possible course of action and philosophy for the future of the PUD and the community.

“We’ve all heard in the press and seen the issues with the aging infrastructure, nationally, but I think it applies locally," he said. "We’ve done a decent job of understanding the realities of replacing it, but I think we need to be a little more proactive as opposed to being reactive.

"I think that you as a board, myself as a manager, and the employees here at the PUD, need to make a difference. We have, I have, limited amount of time here, but I think we need to leave some kind of a legacy whether it’s positive or negative, we need to move in one direction or the other and I think we need to move positively.

"My experience suggests that we can do a better and less expensive job rebuilding our systems in house as opposed to using contractors.

"We’re all aware of the ramifications of waiting until we’re required to replace our infrastructure due to rules or failure of our infrastructure. We’ve seen rapid escalation of rates due to the type of strategy where we just wait and are required to rebuild our infrastructure. I think we understand what it costs to use loans and grants to replace our infrastructure and we have skilled and knowledgeable employees that are more than capable of rebuilding our system.

"I say we give them a chance to show us what they can do. I propose we increase our revenue now and use all the proceeds to purchase materials, tools and equipment to put us on a path of having our entire system rebuilt at some point at time.

“I say we need to do it now, let’s not wait for legislature or catastrophic failure to guide our decisions. I’m confident that a relatively small investment over the next ten years will reap large rewards.

"I don’t think that taking out loans is the right way to do it and paying interest to bankers is not the best use of our rate payers' money. In the long run, by investing now, a little bit at a time, our rates will be lower in the long run. It means we have to bite the bullet and have a rate increase.”

Some discussion followed his statement, but no decisions were made.

The commissioners discussed the state of the budget with Auditor Erin Wilson.

Their next meeting is scheduled for July 16, at 8:30 a.m.