Your PUD PUD News Line
5/17/2005
2,000 users now on PUD fiber optics
More than 2,000 end-users are now receiving services from authorized service providers over Chelan County PUD’s wholesale fiber-optic network. Fourteen local companies, using the District’s fiber network, offer a choice of Internet and telephone services, with television planned in 2005. This public-private partnership with local businesses adds to our local economy and technology sector. For more information about the fiber network and a list of service providers, visit https://fiber.chelanpud.org/euedu/.
Wenatchee Watercolor Society display at Rocky Reach
The Wenatchee Watercolor Society will be displaying their creations at Rocky Reach Dam from June 22 - Aug 1. Subjects include portraits, animals, flowers, still life and landscape.
Click here for more information about Rocky Reach Visitor Center.
Automatic water-meter reading on the horizon
PUD engineers have been studying the benefits of replacing residential water meters with new equipment that can be read automatically.
Their studies considered replacing about 4,700 residential PUD water meters with equipment that can transmit to handheld devices or to a receiver in a vehicle. That could save meter readers the time of manually checking each meter.
The evaluation looked at two alternatives; installing automated equipment or just new manual meters. It found the benefits of automated meters ranked higher in safety, would meet customer desire for monthly meter reading, provide more accurate readings and meet new state requirements for information on water conservation and leak detection. It would also allow existing staff to handle system growth.
Installing the new equipment is estimated to cost about $1 million and would take about 15 months.
Commissioners will be asked for a decision on May 23 when Water Department staff plan to ask for budget approval.
Click here to learn more about the PUD’s Water and Wastewater Department.
PUD to support Columbia River exhibit
PUD commissioners have approved $10,000 to support the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center project, “River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia.”
The exhibit of historical photos, combined with poetry and silk images of 29 species of fish native to the Columbia, will debut in Wenatchee in 2006 and then travel to at least six other Northwest museums. Poetry and photos will also be combined in a book to be published by the University of Washington.
It will be the first time photographs – historical and current - of the entire Columbia from mouth to source will be displayed together, said Bill Layman, Wenatchee historian and co-curator.
Do you Xeriscape™?
No, this isn’t the latest dance craze. It’s low-water-use landscaping. Click here to learn more.