PUD consolidation

Cathlamet’s premium asset is a section of timberland located on a ridge above town. Over the decades, harvests have delivered recurring income to a municipality that operates on a shoestring. Should Cathlamet sell this land? Never.

Cathlamet’s second renewable resource is a water right to the Elochoman River. It feeds the water plant, serves town customers and supplies everyone on Puget Island. Recurring water revenue is vital to sustaining local services. Should the town sell this water right to the PUD? The answer is obvious.

The PUD has coveted Cathlamet’s water for decades. In fact, a PUD commissioner approached me even before I took office as mayor (2010-13) to gauge my interest in selling the plant. The pitch was two-pronged: the town’s management of the system was terrible, this commissioner said, and we’d be far better off letting professionals at the PUD handle it while we focused on things like flower boxes on Main Street. Sound familiar?

Without its water/sewer utilities, Cathlamet would be unable to sustain a public works department – a crew that spends the bulk of its workdays on the utilities, but also maintains the library, operates the pool, oversees parks and much more. The clerk-treasurer manages accounting for town departments and utilities, including EMS. No patchwork of part-timers and volunteers could sustain these functions. I say this as someone who managed the town for four years.

I am surprised, frankly, that members of the town council seem not to understand this basic truth, and to take as faith that supposed efficiency gains from uniting the water system under PUD control would lead to reductions in water and sewer rates. Don’t miss the forest for the trees. Cathlamet’s town council should vote 5-0 to keep its utilities.

George Wehrfritz, Salinas, CA

Cathlamet Mayor, 2010-13