Your PUD PUD News Line

7/12/2006

Minority hiring recommendations offered to PUD board

Four members of the PUD’s Hispanic Customer Partnership Group talked with PUD commissioners July 10 and offered recommendations for increasing access to District jobs for minority residents. The group started meeting a year ago, at the request of PUD commissioners, to find ways to encourage more minority applicants for District jobs as the utility faces a coming wave of baby-boomer retirements. People of Hispanic and Latino heritage are about 21 percent of Chelan County’s population. About 2.5 percent of PUD employees are Hispanic. all about opportunities,” said Tomas Sandoval, a group member who recently retired from the state Employment Security Department. “We are looking to assist the PUD to recruit, identify and encourage Hispanics to meet the standards for employment at the PUD.”

Discussions on the recommendations will continue with the full board, said Commissioner Norm Gutzwiler. Commissioners thanked the group for its work and for volunteering for continued involvement. Click here for the full list of recommendations presented Monday.

Boaters: River levels can change rapidly
Boaters are reminded that normal operations at hydropower dams can lead to rapid changes in water conditions. River levels can vary by several feet within an hour, depending on operations at Rocky Reach, Rock Island and other dams on the river. That could leave boaters who pull onto a beach stranded and boat launch ramps at varying depths.

Boaters are reminded to be on the lookout for debris and rocks at all times on the Columbia River and Lake Chelan and to stay outside security buoys above and below the dams.

Kids Kamp offers free fun and facts at Rocky Reach Dam
Magnets, rocks, airplanes and energy are the topics of free programs for students offered the weeks of July 17 and July 31 at Rocky Reach Dam. It’s all about hands-on science made fun in the two-hour classes taught by Jack Brantner, longtime Wenatchee High School science teacher. Classes are 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Rocky Reach Dam, seven miles north of Wenatchee on Highway 97A. Call 663-7522 by July 14 to register. Click here for the schedule and more information.

PUD eyeing impacts of global warming
Chief Financial Officer Joe Jarvis has asked PUD financial analysts to start looking at potential consequences of global cooling and warming cycles on future electricity-use patterns in our area to see how it might potentially affect PUD power generation and/or distribution. Jarvis recently attended a seminar where issues of global warming were discussed as they might relate to future operation of electrical utilities in the Northwest.

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, 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 our 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.