PUD board discusses upcoming projects

Wahkiakum PUD General Manager Dave Tramblie shared a list of upcoming projects with the PUD Board of Commissioners at the board’s Tuesday morning meeting.

The first project began on Wednesday with a scheduled outage in the Skamokawa area, including East Valley, Middle Valley and Ingalls Road, a portion of SR 4 and West Valley Road, in order to upgrade a section of overhead conductor and reroute it alongside the road for better access. The county provided an assist with a tree that needed to come down.

“It’s better to do it now than wait till we have a storm,” Tramblie said.

The PUD will do similar work in the Elochoman Valley and on West SR 4 later this year. Tramblie plans to install 10,000 feet of underground wire on Oneida Road as well.

A potential customer located east of the Shell station may require a large load from the PUD. In order to provide service for the customer, Tramblie has been working with an engineer and the Bonneville Power Administration to figure out how to deal with the possible voltage drop that could come as a consequence of taking on such a load. It is a problem that could cause flickering for as many as 500 customers who would share the same feeder. He is waiting to hear back from BPA, the goal being to solve the problem and keep all their customers happy.

Tramblie also shared that negotiations with Town of Cathlamet regarding the interlocal agreement to provide water to Puget Island were “going well.”

Auditor Erin Wilson reported that the current balance in the Residential Energy Assistance Program was $108. The PUD received $605 in donations in December and pledged $935 in assistance to PUD customers in need.