Change needed on PUD board

We need a change in leadership at the Clallam Public Utility District. We currently have a commissioner who has been at PUD for 20-plus years. Times have changed. We need a younger person who has a fresher vision for dealing climate change challenges.

Our dependable hydro-energy production will be affected by droughts, lack of snowpack, flooding, etc. We need someone with vision to respond to our changing energy needs and conditions. That person is Ken Hays. He’s committed to controlling rates and fostering resilience and energy stability by combining renewables with hydropower and emerging technologies.

Ken Hays is also committed to ensuring the PUD is responsive and transparent to us, the ratepayers. This is not how the current commissioners have treated concerned ratepayers in the past.

Earlier this year at a bi-monthly PUD commissioners meeting a vote came up to consider membership in the Northwest River Partners Association, a hydroelectric energy lobbying group whose mission is to tell us the obvious: hydroelectric energy production is a good thing. Yearly membership costs $36,000. Several ratepayers suggested the money (which is our money) could be better spent locally, to subsidize rate payers struggling to pay their bills, or help address energy security issues and reliability on the West End, or fund more community solar projects.

However, commissioners Purser and Paschall voted to spend the $36,000 on the NWRP membership.

Let’s elect Ken Hays as our next PUD commissioner. He will use our money more wisely and locally and take our concerns to heart.

Jim Schuenemann

Carlsborg

Thanks, and a way to help

Sequim Dog Park Pals thanks everyone who came out on KSQM’s Pet Appreciation Day in support of Sequim Dog Park.

I am looking into getting matching grants to help turn your generous donations into more benches at the dog park.

We’re looking forward to making the Walk N’ Woof part of our annual fundraiser.

We need volunteers to help spread straw throughout the rainy season to keep the mud down and for other projects.

To volunteer, please email to sequimdogparkpals@icloud.com.

Marcy Engelstein

Sequim