By Pepper Fisher
CLALLAM COUNTY – Water and sewer rate hikes are coming to Clallam PUD customers, that’s something customers have been aware of because of recent mailings. But exactly how and when those increases will be applied will be the subject of a special PUD Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, July 31, and customers are urged to participate during the public comment periods.
“We’re just really encouraging folks to get involved. This was a strong message from the Board of Commissioners to staff, to make sure that we got the message out there. I feel like staff has gone above and beyond in reaching out to the public and really trying to get people involved and spread this word, be as transparent as we can, letting folks know how we got here and the reasons why we’re needing to have these increases. We understand that this is going to be difficult for some folks, and we just want folks to know that we’re working hard to get as creative as we can get, and get as efficient as we can, tighten up our belts, and make sure that we’re doing the hard work in order to continue keeping the potable water flowing to our customers.”
That’s Bowen Kendrick, Water & Wastewater Systems Manager at the PUD. He says they worked with a consultant to come up with a variety of scenarios for rolling out the increases over several years, and doing so in a way that is fair to everybody while maintaining the same level of service. They presented those scenarios to the Board in June, and the Board asked staff to come back with three additional options. Kendrick says they presented those to the commissioners earlier this month and will now discuss all the options at Monday’s special meeting and open it up for public comment.
“Now we’re coming back to the Board of Commissioners, next Monday, the 31st of July, and we’re coming with 10 scenarios. Now, staff’s going to recommend the top three that we think are the best. And, essentially, give the pros and cons, weigh out their goals, the risks, to the Board of Commissioners. And it’s essentially going to be, hopefully, the Commissioners taking action to vote on one of those scenarios and the corresponding rate cases. So we would really strongly recommend the public to not only participate, but also, we have lots of information on the PUD website.”
Go to clallampud.net and click on the first link on the list regarding Monday’s special meeting to get a better idea of what’s to come.