PUD replacing old wire near Altoona

With little on the agenda, reports were the focus at the Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners Meeting on Tuesday.

Counsel Tim Hanigan reported that he had been finalizing an inter-local agreement with Port District 2, who had asked the PUD to collect their water samples.

The PUD has replaced older meters at two local businesses and are currently working on a third, according to General Manager Dave Tramblie.

“I really feel good about getting these upgraded,” Tramblie said. “I feel more confident that we are metering accurately.”

Crews are working along Altoona Road to replace 6A copper weld wire that has a tendency to fray and come apart and cause power loss.

“It’s very old school conductor that they used during the war instead of copper. We’ve been putting bandaids on it,” Tramblie said. “It’s time to get it out of there.”

Tramblie has plans to replace more of the wire on Puget Island.

“We’re just continuing to upgrade,” he said.

Not many customers are signing up for email billing, according to Auditor Erin Wilson, but staff have been taking advantage of every opportunity to educate customers about the option.

“I’m sure it’s going to grow as time goes on,” Commissioner Dennis Reid said.

The commissioners asked Wilson to look into getting a cost of service analysis.

“It might be educational and of benefit to the rate payers,” Commissioner Bob Jungers said.

In old business, Tramblie shared his concerns that a couple hundred of the cross connection surveys sent out to select PUD customers had not been returned. The surveys were mandated by the Department of Health.

“They’re still trickling in but we need to figure out another way to get the people to fill the surveys out,” Tramblie said. “If they don’t respond, we’ll probably have to do site visits.”

Commissioners approved travel for Jim Jesperson to attend a Washington PUD Association Water Workshop in Anacortes in September.

“It’s a good conference,” Commissioner GeneHealy said.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 7 at 8:30 a.m. in the PUD meeting room.