PUD honors Doumit for dedicated service; water contract talks near accord

Janna Doumit, surrounded by all her co-workers, was recognized for 30 years at the Wahkiakum County PUD at Tuesday morning’s board of commissioner’s meeting.

“It went fast,” Doumit said. “I appreciate my job. I know how lucky I’ve been to work so close to home, have such a great place to work and have a great living wage in this town.”

“We appreciate you,” General Manager Dave Tramblie said.

Tramblie gave an update on the water contract negotiation with the Town of Cathlamet.

“Our latest offer was rejected,” he said. “They made a counter offer. I made a verbal response to that and got a positive response back from an individual representing the town. I think the offer on the table is probably doable. Outside of that I would suggest we sit tight until I get some more details.”

Later, Tramblie made the case for purchasing remote meter reading equipment.

“Probably the most practical option for us is the radio read,” Tramblie said. “Whatever route we take we need to make sure it’s economically viable, we want to make sure we don’t put our rate payers in a situation that would require additional expenses.”

“I envision being able to read the entire system in one day,” he continued. “We could potentially free up 80 man hours, using those hours to help the line crew, perform more routine maintenance, spend time doing more leak detection, more time upgrading and maintaining both water systems. That could be a positive thing.”

"The most pressing issue is our outdated computer software for our handheld meter reading hardware. The company no longer supports that software for upgrades."

Because of outdated computer software for their handheld meter reading hardware, Tramblie proposed moving forward by purchasing handhelds that have the capacity to read electronically.

“We would spend a little more money on this because we would need training on the new software,” Tramblie said.

He then touched on infrastructure improvements, citing the Grays River substation, which needs a lot of work and the Cathlamet substation, which doesn’t need quite so much.

“The Grays River substation is old,” Tramblie said. “We need to invest in making sure we maintain reliable service for our customers on that side of the county.”

Auditor Erin Wilson went over May’s financial reports for the electrical system, the Puget Island water system and the western Wahkiakum water system.

Lia Sealund gave an update on conservation.

“Three months left in this budget cycle,” Sealund said. “We have $13,900 of unallocated funds left and we are right on target to spend it all. One of our projects includes changing out all of the lighting in all of the PUD facilities. I think it is a fabulous opportunity to be a showcase for other commercial buildings that might be interested. It might promote some additional conservation opportunities in the future.”

The commissioners approved travel for Doug Condon who will attend a training in sample collection in Longview next week and Tramblie to attend a Public Power Council meeting in Portland this week.

The commissioners also voted to approve a resolution adopting the district’s updated Puget Island water system plan. The Washington Department of Health requires water system plans to be updated and submitted to them at least every six years.

The next meeting is scheduled for July 21, 2015 at 8:30 a.m. in the PUD meeting room.