Wanapum Village declared surplus PUD can move forward with sale

EPHRATA — The Grant County PUD will have a village for sale soon.

Utility district commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday declaring Wanapum Village as surplus and starting the process to sell it. The 56 acres are located about five miles south of Wanapum Dam and date back to the dam’s construction in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The property includes 30 residences and a building that housed administration offices, a park and about 27 acres of vacant land. It has fully-contained water and wastewater treatment systems, although Sheryl Dotson, the PUD’s property services supervisor, told commissioners in October the sewer system would have to be replaced.

The reservoir for the water system is located on land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Commissioners approved the purchase of the water system Tuesday for $22,850.

The office building was used until 2014, when the PUD opened a new complex at Wanapum Dam. The houses were rented to workers in the days when local housing was hard to find. But “transportation and housing improvements have diminished the need of providing workforce housing,” wrote Blair Fuglie, PUD land specialist, in a memo to commissioners.

Dotson said in October that PUD employees are recommending that the property be sold in one piece, without breaking it up into individual properties (a process called platting). Utility district employees also recommended that the purchaser be required to replace the sewer system, but be allowed to use the existing sewer system for at least one year.

The PUD employees recommended the utility keep the water rights attached to Wanapum Village and require the buyer to obtain new water rights, Dotson said. At the October meeting commissioner Tom Flint said he thought selling the property without water rights would have a big impact on its value.

Because the houses are more than 50 years old they may qualify as historic properties, and any purchaser might have to comply with some historic preservation rules, Fuglie said. But those rules change if the property is not sold within 90 days, he added.

Declaring the property as surplus is the first step in the process. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also must approve the surplus designation.