PUD authorizes camera; Reid nominated for office

It was an abbreviated affair at Tuesday morning’s Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners meeting because of the absence of Commissioner Bob Jungers. The commissioners tabled some issues to be revisited upon his return.

General Manager Dave Tramblie presented a report of the Westend water system, and after a short discussion, the commissioners decided to wait until they have had time to digest the report.

Commissioner Dennis Reid did note that the average customer’s bill was $65. He wondered how that measured up with numbers from other PUDs.

“Other systems have unique problems like we do,” Reid said. “It would be interesting to see.”

Tramblie reported that a new voltage monitoring device had been set up at the western Wahkiakum well site from March 6-11.

“The data indicates the voltage was well within the required parameters,” Tramblie said, “so there is no real need to put the regulator back on line in Grays River. It’s a very old piece of equipment and I think the amount of money it would require to repair it isn’t worth it as long as our voltage remains in an acceptable range.”

Tramblie also reported that a problematic area in the Elochoman Valley seemed to resolve itself when they replaced several insulators and a lightning arrestor.

“Perhaps one of those things was the culprit,” Tramblie said.

Tramblie asked the commissioners to okay the purchase of an infrared camera that would help them find hot spots around the county.

“In the past we’ve hired a contractor,” he said, “and it costs us $1,000 every time they come in. For $10,000 we can have this available to us on a regular basis. It would give us a much better chance of avoiding outages and other issues. Plus the vendor is throwing in $1,800 worth of training if we buy it now.”

After some discussion about whether the tool could be used for conservation, Healy and Reid authorized the purchase.

Auditor Erin Wilson reported that there was currently $51 in the Residential Energy Assistance Program fund.

In order to continue discussions about broadband, Commissioner Gene Healy had invited representatives from Pacific PUD to come and talk to the board. According to Healy, the Pacific PUD Manager and the IT person will visit with the Wahkiakum PUD sometime in April to share their knowledge and experience.

“If you have a good source of information we can ask them all kinds of questions and learn something,” Reid said. “It’s good for the PUDs to work together and help each other out. I like to see the interaction.”

Reid reported that he was being nominated to go through the officer positions with WPUDA.

“It wasn’t something I aspired to,” Reid said. “I told them no I couldn’t do it, it wouldn’t fit the budget of a small utility. At the executive meeting they decided that WPUDA could cover some of the costs. It’s quite an honor to be nominated. If I get elected I will do the job. There was no way that money could come out of the PUD budget to pay for me to go to meetings in DC. But if I get elected, they will pay for it.”

The commissioners approved the membership appointment to WPUDA and will discuss other memberships at the next meeting when Jungers is there.

Travel was approved for Wilson to attend a WPUDA Human Resource meeting in Olympia in June.