PUD considers rates, handles other business

Commissioner Gene Healy shared his concerns about the proposed four consecutive five percent increases to the Puget Island and western Wahkiakum water rates at Tuesday’s Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners meeting.

"Four consecutive five percent increases without a plan is a little bit distasteful to me," he said. "It is a pretty substantial increase, and it needs to be formalized. My preference would be to reduce this to two consecutive five percent increases. This would give the team time to draw up water plans for both systems and to develop a comprehensive replacement plan for the aging infrastructure.

"What I’m really after is the development of a formal plan."

Commissioners Dennis Reid and Robert Jungers had no objections.

Shane Pfenniger and Jim Jespersen gave reports on the electrical and water departments for the commissioners at Tuesday’s PUD Board of Commissioners meeting.

“We had this big blow come through this weekend but we didn’t have a single outage,” Pfenniger said. “It beats 15 years ago when we’d get a little breeze and you were here and there all night long. Now I stay home and watch football.”

Jespersen reported that they were working hard to locate a leak that had been narrowed down to 2500 feet of pipe located in a tough spot on the Westend along the river. It is currently losing about 7,000 gallons a day and the team is highly motivated.

“It’s extremely wet, we’re hoping to find something when it freezes,” added General Manager Dave Tramblie.

Tramblie reported that employee Dave Hicks had attended a meeting where he learned about investigating electrical incidents. He will be sharing what he learned and what he has found after his return to the office in order to increase education and prevent accidents. Tramblie also reported that L&I had completed their inspection and had found no violations.

Auditor Erin Wilson reported that there was $660.25 in their Residential Energy Assistance Program fund.