Farm bureau to address Grant County PUD rates

PUD holds public meeting on rates Wednesday

GRANT COUNTY - Members of the Grant County Farm Bureau plan to attend a Grant County Public Utility District meeting about possible rate increases Wednesday.

No rate increases were included in the PUD's $450.3 million budget for the year, approved by commissioners in December 2007.

Grant County PUD Communications Manager Sarah Morford said the meeting is Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the district office, located at 30 C St. S.W., in Ephrata.

"The commission has had some sessions to analyze the utility's forecasted revenue requirements for the next five years," she explained. "These sessions, including the one on Wednesday will help the commission determine the impact those requirements may have on any of the utility's customer rate classes."

The meetings are open to the public, Morford said. She was not aware of the bureau's concerns when contacted by the Columbia Basin Herald.

"The commission is really just in the process of determining where we're going in general, so those all may be components of the discussion on Wednesday," she said.

Farm bureau board member John Bates, head of the bureau's PUD committee, said he hasn't been to a rate meeting recently, but he hopes to voice his opinion as the district decides whether they need to increase rates for different rate classes.

"(That's) a negative in my mind," Bates said. "I was part of, along with quite a few other farmers, of a group of irrigators that spent quite a bit of time with the PUD a few years ago addressing rates."

Specifically, the group discussed seasonal minimums for irrigators, Bates said.

"We were told by the PUD that when Grant County PUD got power back on the relicensing, we would see some relief in the form of maybe reduction in rate or eliminate the seasonal minimums. I wanted to make sure the commission (remembers) that was what was promised us. It doesn't sound like that's what's happening, although I don't know that for sure, I haven't been to the meeting."

Bates said he would know more following the meeting.

"Basically my motivation to be there is to make sure irrigators' concerns are addressed and remind them of the findings of that group," he said. "We spent a lot of time on that."

Bates said his farm is in Adams County as well as Grant County.

"Big Bend Electric rates are actually a little cheaper, and they don't have the benefit of a dam on the river," he said. "One of the things we addressed as irrigators before was why Grant County PUD has to be relatively expensive, because of what we've got going there."

Bates was not certain how many bureau members would attend the meeting Wednesday.

"I know there's like four of us on the committee and I know at least three of them are going to be there," he said.