Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Council approves consultant for regional utility consolidation study

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The Leavenworth City Council has approved a professional service agreement with FCS Group for consultant services regarding the regional utility consolidation study. 

“The PUD has agreed to fund a regionalization study for the cities of Cashmere, Leavenworth, Peshastin, Chelan County and also utilities run by the Chelan County PUD,” said City Administrator Joel Walinski, at the June 27 city council meeting. “The idea is to look at regionalization of those utilities, identifying the benefits of consolidation, also identifying some of the negatives for consolidation. Basically provide information to the decision makers.”

Walinski said they will be forming a stakeholders group, with representation from all the agencies involved. The stakeholders will work with the FCS Group, which plans to look at the financial issues, the issue of governance, organizational structure, ownership and operation of utilities. 

The study will not cover all the various issues, Walinski said. 

“It could be various small portions. For instance, Chantell’s (Steiner) office does a wonderful job sending out bills, but there might some efficiencies in having the PUD do billing for Cashmere and Leavenworth, Peshastin Water District,” Walinski said. “So you would have one bill that says PUD electric, city of Leavenworth water and those types of things. That might be one step we could take in the short run.” 

Some of the bigger questions include the overall growth of the upper valley, he said. That is a 20-year question, but there are also five year questions and two year questions. 

“I idea is to get people some information so they can begin discussions. At the end of it, I am expecting a joint session in front of the Chelan County Commissioners, city councils of Cashmere and Leavenworth. The Port and PUD should also be there. They’ll have a presentation by the FCS Group on their findings. There will also be a discussion on the next steps,” Walinski said. 

Councilman Elmer Larsen, a proponent of the regionalization idea, said the synopsis submitted by the consultant is much more on the possibility of governance. He was hoping to get more into the details of putting pipes in the ground. 

“I’m really about the economics, I’m not really about the governance. There’s some self interest in some of these communities retaining these things as a revenue source and also their capital improvements, like improving water mains in the city. There is a lot of stuff I haven’t even thought about. It’s nice that will be on the table early on,” Larsen said. 

The total contract amount is $150,000. The actual scope of work is $140,000. Walinski said $10,000 has been set aside for contingencies. Larsen will be council representative on the stakeholder committee. 

“I thought this was a great document. They brought up a lot of things. I lived the phone company divestiture, trying to reform. I know they are still working on it. It is not trivial to do this,” said Councilwoman Margaret Neighbors. 

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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