Reporter finds PUD beat interesting
Voters throwing money away, giving too much control to government
As a reporter covering the Grant County Public Utility District for the last eight months, I've found the responsibility both interesting and complicated. I work at learning the issues, collecting the facts and writing informative stories. However, it's not always easy.
One aspect of the district, I believe, creates specific challenges.
The district's fiber optic system, known as the Zipp Network, is a contentious issue. Being an issue frequently discussed and debated publicly, it often becomes the focus of stories I write.
For me, understanding the subject of a fiber optic communication system well enough to write about it, has been difficult. I enjoy it, so I am sticking with it.
Recently, I received an e-mail requesting a few statistics relating to the Zipp Network. I considered it to be a fair request and I had not included the information in a previous story.
The e-mail, however, went further and suggested I was afraid to reveal the statistics because of a political bias related to the Zipp Network.
For the record, I don't have a dog in this fight. I figured everyone already knew this about the press, but apparently not.
So, what were the questions? I decided to take this opportunity to publish those statistics, whatever they mean. I did a little reporting and here is what I came up with.
First, how much money does the district's fiber program consume each month in wages and benefits compared to net income per month?
No problem here, I'll simply ask the media people at the district.
Sarah Morford, public affairs supervisor for the district, said they have approximately $2,327,000 budgeted in 2006 for operations and maintenance, without depreciation. Of the $2,327,000, roughly $1.7 million is allocated for labor and benefits. The average monthly labor cost is roughly $142,000. The remaining $600,000 during the year is allocated toward materials used to support the network.
The district expects to collect approximately $1.6 million annually in revenue, under current rates. Current expenses total $5.3 million. The annual net operating loss equals $3.7 million with a monthly average loss of $307,000, according to Morford.
Having done that, I feel better already.
The second question, interestingly enough, was how many district employees dedicate all or part of their time to supporting Zipp Network issues?
The always helpful media people at the district will have no problem with this one either.
Morford said 15 full-time employees from various departments including facilities, telecommunication engineering, line crews, electronic shop and operations and support services dedicate all or part of their time to supporting the Zipp Network. The full-time equivalent calculation is based on 2,080 total regular hours per year.
I wish every PUD story was this easy.
The last question I have room to answer is: How much money does the district earn per residential customer each month?
The district sells Internet service providers various wholesale services. The 27 providers using the district's system pay an average of $4,800 per month. The district's average wholesale revenue from July 2005 to November of 2005 from those 27 providers turned out to be $130,000 per month. The district received $1,520,236 in revenue for 2005, through the end of November.
Using the same figures for all 4,200 current end users or residential customers of the system, fiber revenue per customer per month equates to roughly $31 per month, Morford said.
I appreciate reader interest and will always try to write what people care to read. Keep the messages, letters and e-mails coming. I'm not going to dig up every juicy statistic and include it in my articles, but I want to.
David Cole is the county reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald.
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