A streetlight in Onalaska is seen in front of the elementary and middle school. Water-Sewer District 2 will no longer be collecting and remitting bills for streetlight service in the district, so customers who wish to keep specific streetlights on must take on responsibility for individual lights with the Lewis County Public Utility District.
Some streetlights in Onalaska may soon be going dark. It’s not due to faulty wiring or aging infrastructure.
Due to a billing fallout between a pair of districts, local residents, businesses and schools will are being asked to take responsibility for individual streetlights, arranging to have the service charges added to their bill if they want the light to remain on.
“We do anticipate that some of these lights might not be transferred over to an account-holder’s name,” said Chris Roden, general manager of the Lewis County Public Utility District. “If a customer does sign up for it, we can go out there quickly and turn it back on.”
Until this month, local Water-Sewer District 2 had billed its customers $2 a month district-wide for streetlight service, before transferring that money to the PUD. The PUD owns, operates and maintains the 46 streetlights in the district. According to Amie Smith, the District 2 manager, leaders in the district became aware of a state law that put that arrangement in question.
District 2 believes it needs a new agreement with the PUD, designating the district as a bill-collecting service rather than a customer, and adding a negligible, essentially symbolic fee.
“We’d collect the funds from our customers and pay for the service,” Smith said. “When we went to the PUD, we were hoping we could come to some agreement to keep doing that. … Their policy as it currently stands, they can’t accommodate us.”
Roden said the PUD had no issues with the arrangement as it stood, calling District 2 a “good customer.” The utility saw no legal problems with continuing the existing structure, he said.
“At some point they said, ‘Hey, we don’t feel like we can be doing this anymore,’” he said. “We always stop short of trying to interpret something on behalf of another agency. That’s up to them to make the determination.”
Smith said District 2 “told on ourselves” to the Washington State Auditor’s Office, which issued no demands or punishment as the district said it was working to fix what it perceived as a problem. Though District 2 was hoping to continue its role in ensuring the lights are paid for, it doesn’t have the funds to purchase or operate them on its own.
“We really want to keep the streetlights on in Onalaska,” Smith said. “For us to provide the same service, we can’t do that for $10 or $12 per streetlight (per month). It would be cost-prohibitive. … What we can’t legally do is keep going as we are.”
According to Roden, the idea to designate District 2 as a bill-collecting service for the PUD was a non-starter.
“We don’t have bill collectors acting on our behalf anywhere as a utility,” he said. “Entering into a one-off billing arrangement is really out of the scope of how we do business.”
With the districts unable to resolve the billing issue, it will now fall to individuals, businesses and schools to ensure the lights that are important to them stay on. District 2 has been working to get the word out, and Roden said the PUD is prepared for account-holders who want to get a streetlight added to their bill to ensure it stays on.
“We’ve been working for them to ensure that customers who do want to see those lights remain on get signed over,” he said. “They can just call us and our folks know about it, so they’ll be able to expedite getting everyone signed up.”
The monthly bill for a streetlight ranges from about $8 to $18, depending on the wattage. Smith said she has been in touch with the local schools to ensure they’re aware of the issue.
“It’s not ideal. It’s not what we wanted. We wanted to keep providing this service,” she said. “My concern is that part of our town is going to go dark. I don’t want that and the (district) commissioners don’t want that, but what are we going to do? We don’t see a way forward.”
Roden said the PUD will give Onalaska some time to adjust to the new arrangement. While streetlights that aren’t transferred to a new account-holder will be shut off, the infrastructure will remain in place, so that it’s ready to be turned back on if someone steps up to pay the bill.
