Your PUD PUD News Line

3/8/2006

PUD sponsors Ciscoe workshop

Back by popular demand… Chelan County PUD will sponsor a visit from Ciscoe Morris, host of KING 5 TV’s “Gardening with Ciscoe” program, at 1 p.m. March 12, at the KPQ Home and Garden Show. The presentation will focus on low-water-use landscaping, or Xeriscape, and will be in the Bank of America Performing Arts Center. Meeghan Black will also appear.

PUD to host seasonal Parks job fair

The PUD will host a job fair for people interested in applying for seasonal Parks positions this Friday, March 10, from 1 to 5 p.m., and Saturday, March 11, from 8 a.m. to noon, at the PUD Headquarters Auditorium, 327 N. Wenatchee Ave.

Members of the PUD’s Human Resources Department and other supervisors will accept applications and hold interviews for eight Parks positions. Applicants must be high school graduates or hold a GED to apply.

This is the third year that Chelan County PUD has used this approach to attract a broad group of applicants. For more information and for job qualifications, visit the PUD Web site, http://www.chelanpud.org/, and click on “job opportunities,” or call the PUD job line, (509) 661-8001.

Cashmere asks PUD to take next step on city electric system

The city of Cashmere has asked Chelan County PUD to move into the next phase of evaluation on future ownership of the city’s electric system.

The request was made in a March 3 letter shared with PUD commissioners Monday.

At the city’s request, the PUD took part in an initial evaluation of the Cashmere electric system, which serves about 1,400 customers inside the city limits. Results of the study of the system by HDR Engineering were discussed at a public meeting on Jan. 11, in Cashmere.

PUD commissioners Monday asked Jeff Smith, PUD intergovernmental relations director, to respond to the city’s letter, indicating PUD willingness to have staff continue discussions, but making clear that the board has taken no position on the issue of future ownership of the system.

General manager search

Consultant Jerry Oldani reports that he has received 115 applications, including seven from the Northwest and four internal PUD applicants. Oldani will review a short list of applicants with commissioners next week, who will meet at 1 p.m. on March 13, to discuss the applicants in executive session.

Commissioners hope to have a finalist by April.

Jerrold Oldani, a senior vice president of Waters-Oldani Executive Recruitment of Dallas, was hired by commissioners late last year to help with the search for a new general manager.

Rocky Reach license effort reaches milestone

PUD commissioners have endorsed an agreement between the PUD and stakeholder agencies in support of a new 50-year operating license for Rocky Reach Dam. The PUD will submit the settlement agreement to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approval in mid-March.

Gregg Carrington, Hydro Services director, recently thanked federal and state agencies, PUD staff and commissioners for their eight years of collaborative negotiation to get to this point. “We’ve reached a historic agreement that will ensure that we will be able to provide safe, reliable, low-cost power from the Project for the next 50 years,” he told commissioners at a meeting Feb. 27.

The agreement includes provisions for a multimillion-dollar upgrade at Entiat Park, for continuing management plans involving white sturgeon, bull trout and Pacific lamprey, and for eventual enhancement of Lincoln Rock and Daroga state parks. The settlement package also includes management plans for shoreline erosion, water quality, resident fish, wildlife, cultural resources and recreation. Costs for implementing the new license are estimated $394 million over 50 years.

The current 50-year license for Rocky Reach runs through June 2006. Until a new long-term license is approved by FERC, the dam would operate under annual licenses.

Click here to view the settlement agreement.

Stay in touch with your PUD

We’ve made it easier to get important information about the PUD on one page. Go to our Web site, http://www.chelanpud.org/, and click on the PUD logo at the top of the page to visit On the Record. This page also includes more information on the search for a new general manager.

Residents of Chelan County can now find out in seconds if they are in a fiber-optic build zone. Click on the map to access the PUD’s fiber-optics mapping feature.