PUD adopts budgets with no rate increases

Reports were given and the 2017 budgets were approved at the Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday morning.

Customer Service Representative Lia Sealund brought the commissioners up to date on the energy efficiency programs available to customers at the PUD.

“Over the last year,” Sealund said, “we’ve captured approximately 136,000 kilowatt hours in energy savings for our customers through projects like ductless heat pumps, window retrofitting, insulation and non residential lighting.”

Sealund proposed that they continue to offer those programs and add another rebate program for ducted heat pumps.

The commissioners went into a budget hearing to discuss the proposed budget for 2017 for the electric system and the Puget Island and Western Wahkiakum water systems.

“I appreciate the work that you’ve done on the budget, cuts in places and whatnot to preserve the rates at the level they are with no rate increases,” Commissioner Dennis Reid said when the hearing was over. “You put some work and some pride into it. I appreciate it.”

The commissioners approved a resolution to adopt the 2017 budgets for the PUD’s electric and water systems. The budget for the electrical system is $4,159,950. The budget for the Puget Island water system is $414,175, and the budget for the Western Wahkiakum water system is $321,290.

General Manager David Tramblie reported that the pumps on the Western Wahkiakum water system were not functioning properly about ten days earlier. After some trouble diagnosing the problem because of 20 year old equipment, they isolated a relay that kept shutting on and off.

“The good news is everything is operating as it should down there,” Tramblie said.

A small enclosure over a booster pump on Shannon Road will be replaced because it is in poor condition. The work will be done by the PUD over the next couple weeks.

According to Tramblie, State Road on Puget Island is down to one lane after collapsing above an existing wooden culvert. The PUD rerouted their water main and installed an overhead span for the electric in order for the county road crew to come in and make repairs.

Tramblie plans to upgrade current transformer meters on the island while the PUD continues to replace water and electric meters with automatic meter reading meters.

“It’s really poor quality construction because of the way they hang out off the pole,” Tramblie said of the CT meters. “Anytime you install current transformers it should be in a secured enclosure. We are going to upgrade all those locations. They are quite numerous. Each location will require about $80 worth of material to upgrade it. It will be a little bit time consuming, but while we are going to the AMR meters, it makes sense to do it now.”