The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

The Wahkiakum PUD Board of Commissioners adopted proposed budgets for 2015 at Tuesday’s meeting, discussed how to handle a potential large load, and expressed gratitude for community support of their Residential Energy Assistance Program.

The final budget allows for expenditures in the amount of $4,156,641 for the electrical system, $362,755 for the Puget Island water system and $309,276 for the Western Wahkiakum water system.

A state safety group is requiring the PUD to complete an arc flash study, estimated by Brown & Kysar to cost $19,000, according to General Manager Dave Tramblie. He also shared that Shannon Green from Bonneville Power Administration would be visiting the PUD on December 2 at 10 a.m.

The PUD has received some hardware to replace LED lights and Tramblie said that crews will begin replacing lights in the town of Cathlamet and work their way out from there, eventually replacing more than 200 lights.

Tramblie has located a rental truck with the capability to place the lofty replacement light pole at the high school and it should be available in early December.

A potential customer with a large load on Puget Island has approached the PUD and Tramblie has been considering ways to provide the power this customer needs.

“It’s a very substantial load,” Tramblie said. “I think we can put this together so it works for all parties. The total connected load may be 1.2 megawatts, but we may be able to have half of it on at a time, so not to impact our system as much.”

If the PUD receives a written request from the customer, they will have to consider how to pay for the upgrades and what the risk might be to current rate payers.

“We don’t generally require an explanation of the business plan,” Commissioner Gene Healy said, “but we need to assure our current rate payers that something isn’t going to happen to the business and we’re stuck with a quarter million dollars worth of stuff we don’t need.”

Along with the new budget, the commissioners passed a resolution regarding eligibility for the senior or disabled citizen discount program. The resolution did away with language that excluded residents who lived in federally subsidized housing. It also modified the minimum and maximum incomes that determined eligibility. Residents over the age of 62 or disabled citizens are eligible for discounts from 10 to 20 percent, depending on their income.

Meter reading is being done a little earlier in the month in order to give Auditor Erin Wilson enough time to get the bills out on schedule and more people are going paperless, signing up for email bill notification.

Wilson said that there was currently $1,400 available in the REAP program. They have received over $2,900 this year, disbursing over $1,800 in assistance.

“We’ve had a lot of generous donations lately,” she said.