PUD line crew replaces old underground line

The Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners met Nov. 26 to approve budgets for the coming year and listen to reports.

General Manager David Tramblie said the line crew had completed a project to remove overhead service and replace it with underground at the customer’s request and his financial assistance because a couple of alder trees would eventually cause problems.

“It was a good project for the PUD and the customer,” Tramblie said.

Another “good project” was the replacement of more than 1,200 feet of primary underground in the Grays River area. The conductor was probably installed in the 1970s, according to Tramblie, running cross country and in an area where large fir trees had been planted.

“If there was an outage on that in the middle of the night, it would have been a nightmare for the guys to fix,” Tramblie said. “It was a good project.”

The water crew repaired a water break in the Hull Creek area, but there was some concern that the issue had not been resolved.

Tramblie said that the water crew were working on a project to replace the master meter of the Puget Island Water Main bypass and meter assembly when a valve broke.

That assembly has always been a shared expense between the PUD and the town, Tramblie said.

Tramblie said he had spoken with an engineer, Jim Jespersen of the water crew, and town water department staff, adding, “we believe that all the valves, there are four or five of them, should be replaced right now.”

Commissioners approved a resolution to adopt the 2020 budgets for the electrical and water systems. They also approved a resolution to amend the rates for the electrical system and the Western Wahkiakum Water System, as well as a resolution authorizing an amendment of the interest rate for the loan from the district’s electrical department to the Western Wahkiakum Water System.

They approved travel for Commissioner Gene Healy to attend a broadband workshop in Olympia in early December.