Your PUD News Release
Former general manager and commissioner Kirby Billingsley.
Community invited to honor memory of public power advocate Kirby Billingsley
Chelan County PUD
News Release
9/24/2008
Chelan County PUD invites customer-owners, friends and family of the late Kirby Billingsley, public power advocate and former PUD general manager and commissioner, to the renaming of Rock Island Hydro Park in his honor.
At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1, Billingsley’s friends and family will gather at the park near East Wenatchee to celebrate its new name, Kirby Billingsley Hydro Park.
Billingsley was a PUD commissioner from 1945 to 1953, when he became general manager of the utility until 1968. He served again as a PUD commissioner from 1970 to 1972. He died in 1993 at the age of 89.
His achievements include his pivotal involvement in public power in the region, the funding and construction of Rocky Reach Dam, and the creation of Chelan County PUD’s parks system.
At the event, a commemorative seating area looking out on the river will also be dedicated. The area will have interpretive signs chronicling Billingsley’s accomplishments in public power and his dedication to the Columbia River.
Speakers will include Columbia River historian Bill Layman; Billingsley’s son, Pete Billingsley; Chairman of the Complete the Loop Coalition Bob Parlette; PUD Commission President Norm Gutzwiler; and PUD Executive Manager Wayne Wright.
Also speaking will be Wenatchee World Chairman of the Board Wilfred Woods, who said of Billingsley, “he was the single most important figure in the development of local public power. He was truly indispensable.”
Orchard Middle School Voices of Harmony choir, under the direction of Lynn Love, will perform and refreshments will be served.
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Kirby Billingsley Hydro Park is two miles 2 miles south of East Wenatchee on Highway 28.
For more information, contact Kris Pomianek, recreation resource administrator, at (509) 661.4186, or by e-mail, kris.pomianek@chelanpud.org.
Christy Shearer
Communications Audio-visual Specialist
Chelan County PUD
509.661.4258 office
509.421.4258 cell
509.661.8133 fax
christy.shearer@chelanpud.org