By RICHARD WALKER
rwalker@soundpublishing.com
POULSBO — John Armstrong is a retired business manager for the Navy who’s served on the Kitsap Public Utility District Commission since 1992 and helped guide the district into broadband and wastewater service.
Debra Lester is a former mayor of Bainbridge Island who’s toured wastewater treatment plants to learn about uses for treated wastewater, and studied how hydropower can be harnessed from municipal water pipes.
They are running against each other for position 1 on the Kitsap PUD commission in the Nov. 8 general election. It’s a friendly campaign; during a recent meeting with Sound Publishing editors and community advisory board members, the candidates ended the event with a fist bump.
The candidates are similar in many views, though Lester is positioning herself as more forward-thinking: she supports using methane gas produced at wastewater treatment plants to generate electrical power, and using water-pipe turbines to generate electricity (Portland has begun using this technology).
Otherwise, each sees broadband service, which the district provides, as an essential service; supports changing commission meeting times from 9:30 a.m. to a time more convenient to the public; and supports partnering with neighborhoods to make utility services available (residents of Lookout Lane, northwest of Poulsbo in unincorporated Kitsap, have proposed creating an improvement district; property owners would pay an assessment to cover the cost of improvements).
Regarding experience: Armstrong, seeking a fifth term, said the district is recognized statewide as an efficient and well-run utility and he’s proud to be part of that. He noted that during his tenure, the range of services provided by the district has expanded yet the tax rate has increased from 8 cents to 8.05 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
“We’re a tight bunch,” he said in an earlier forum.
In the voters’ guide, he wrote that his “common-sense approach to decision-making requires me to weigh cost vs. benefits to reach a fair and balanced decision. This method of resource management has been gained through 26 years of organizational management, 24 years of serving as your PUD commissioner.”
As a former member of a city council and various regional policy and planning committees, Lester said she’s familiar with testifying in Olympia on behalf of Kitsap and would work to build stronger alliances within the district’s communities. She’s also “very curious” about new technology (like those turbines that can be placed in municipal water pipes to generate electricity, and the use of treated wastewater for irrigation and to recharge aquifers).
“Working with fellow commissioners, my goal is to assure KPUD customers affordable and reliable utility services using a thorough process of ratesetting, cost/benefit analysis, and budget reviews,” she wrote in the voters’ guide. “Having worked directly with many Kitsap County elected officials and tribal leaders, my focus is on building stronger alliances to carefully manage our water resources, treat wastewater so as to retain more freshwater resources in freshwater systems, and continue efforts to extend broadband telecommunications.”
Their top priorities, as stated in an online voters guide.
Armstrong: Maintain and enhance service and performance records of “exceeding our customer satisfaction levels for all the responses that we provide”; extend broadband services to areas of Kitsap County that are not presently served, or are underserved, “within the fiscal constraints and resources by exploring additional funding opportunities, such as public/private partnerships with investor-owned companies”; maintain water conservation and recharge efforts that have been “set by this board over the past 20 years.”
Lester: Carefully manage our water resources; treat wastewater so as to retain more freshwater in freshwater systems; extend broadband service.
ONLINE: onyourballot.vote411.org/race-detail.do?id=14575283.
AT A GLANCE
The Kitsap Public Utility District is governed by a publicly elected three-member board, with one commissioner elected from North Kitsap, another from Central Kitsap, and another from South Kitsap. Commission terms are six years. According to Armstrong, a commissioner receives $19,200 a year and per diem of $120 a day.
The district’s 2015 budget was $10.4 million in revenue, $6.2 million in regular expenses, $2.1 million in debt-service payments, and $5.6 million in capital expenditures. The district covered the $3.5 million overage with its reserves, ending the year with a reserve fund of $5.1 million.
According to www.KPUD.org, the utility district was formed by voters in 1940 to explore providing electrical service as a public special-purpose district, instead of a private company.
In the 1970s, Kitsap PUD began providing water utility service after it acquired several small, privately owned water systems and municipal water districts. Today, the district owns and operates 50 separate water systems that provide drinking water to 50,000 residents of Kitsap. The water systems consist of wells, storage reservoirs, and pipes that carry water to homes and businesses.
In the late 1980s, Kitsap PUD was designated the lead agency for development of the county’s Coordinated Water System Plan and Ground Water Management Plan. Kitsap PUD initiated a countywide water resource monitoring program which includes tracking well-water levels, rainfall, and stream flow. The district drilled a series of test wells to improve the understanding of aquifers in Kitsap County.
In the 1990s, Kitsap PUD conducted a water-related education program for students and adults, and in 1995 started the annual Kitsap Water Festival.
Since the early 2000s, Kitsap PUD has been operating a high-speed open-access fiber optic broadband network in Kitsap County. Almost all of the county’s schools, libraries, government offices, first-responder buildings and major medical facilities have been connected to this fiber optic network.
In 2014, Kitsap PUD began assisting in a project to renovate the wastewater treatment plant at Port Gamble. The plant’s effluent will no longer be directed into Hood Canal but to a large, upland drainfield.
