The Pacific County PUD #2 met on Tuesday, February 16 for their regular bi-monthly meeting. This meeting was held at the Peninsula Operations Center in Long Beach, and the commissioners started the meeting with the pledge of allegiance.
For the first item on the agenda Diana Thompson awarded PUD employee Connie Noyes an award for her service: "Connie started her employment at PUD #2 of Pacific County as an Assistant Cashier half-time in the Ilwaco office beginning May 14 of 1979, while completing her Senior year at Ilwaco High school. She grew up in Mike's Place, Jesse's Fish Company and Columbia Clinic. She continued as an Assistant Cashier until on March 1, 1984. She was promoted to the classification of Cashier," said Thompson. Thompson went on to describe the rest of Noyes' career, thanking her for her work with the agency.
It was time in the meeting for the manager's report, where General Manager Doug Miller reported on an update with the Shoreline Management Plan. "I had reported in prior meetings that there was a prohibition against underground cable and ducts or conduits along the ocean coming up on the shore, in the bay, within and across creeks and rivers and streams in the rest of the county. You are aware that I submitted two letters expressing our concerns over those areas," said Miller. Miller went on to explain that they had voted to change the prohibition for conditional use permits for the ocean, and the bay. There are already exceptions for utilities having to do with streams, "So there's seven planning commission members, five voted in favor of the change and it passed," said Miller.
Miller had reported in the previous PUD #2 meeting on an accusation that came into the PUD by letter, that accused the PUD of violating some things in the Americans with Disabilities Act. "In the process of returning a letter that said that we'd later get back to them," said Miller, "they followed up with an email that said 'We made a mistake, it was an error and we're withdrawing everything we sent to you.'"
After the manager's report the commissioners moved on to the next item, which contained a round of four contracts for service extensions.
The commissioners next adopted resolution 1371, a resolution adopting an Arc Flash Hazard Policy for the PUD #2.
Near the end of the meeting, during items from the public Dick Anderson had some questions for the commissioners.
"The Washington Archaeological Society, are they involved in that dig," asked Anderson, referencing the incident in Middle Village, where the PUD #2 dug into a site that they did not have the permission to dig into. Miller responded: "It's the Department of Archaeologists from the State of Washington; the archaeologist that did the review was from the National Park Service."
Anderson had another question about negotiations or communications with the Grays Harbor PUD concerning the structures in the Tokeland-Grayland area, to which Miller stated that they were looking at meeting on Friday, March 11.
Anderson had one last question: "The last question I had pertains to our meters that are read by a computer. They're not read by the meter men. I'm using my own meter as an example, is that meter read each month? Because Snohomish PUD is in a mess because they admitted that they are not reading them every month. Miller responded: "Snohomish must all be monthly. No we read electronically or in person all of our meters once a month."