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Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020 - Shelton-Mason County Journal Page A—15
Mason County Public Utility District 1 Board President Ron Gold, General
Manager Kristin Masteller
and Commissioner Mike Sheetz were among those recognized for the PUD’s
COVID-19 response.
Courtesy photo .
PUD 1 awarded for COVID response
By Kirk Boxleitner
kbox/eitner@masoncounty. com
Mason County Public Utility District 1 was honored
Dec. 15 for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic at
a virtual national “Special Districts Summit” intended
to recognize innovation and leadership within special
district agencies, which includes port authorities,
utility districts, transits and park districts.
Hundreds of submissions were submitted from
agencies across the United States, and Mason PUD
1 General Manager Kristin Masteller was invited to
be a panelist at a virtual summit in August, joining
panelists from the Orange County Transporta-
tion Authority in California and Pinellas County in
Florida.
“I am very honored and proud that our small
public agency out here on the Hood Canal was recog-
nized alongside giant metropolitan districts like
Orange County and the New York Power Authority,”
Masteller said. “It doesn’t seem now like the actions
we took when the pandemic started were that innova-
tive, but they were extraordinary at that time.”
Masteller noted the PUD closed its doors to the
public for the first time in 85 years, and while plenty
of other agencies have since followed suit, she said the
PUD was the first to do so in Mason County.
“It was scary to take that leap,” Masteller said.
“We didn’t know how bad this pandemic would end
up being, and were wary of appearing like we were
overreacting, when we sent people home and,split up
our crews.”
Masteller credited those moves with helping the
PUD maintain a healthy workforce and reliable
service.
The PUD’s pandemic response plan was developed
as an offshoot of the existing emergency response
plan.
“We did not have any type of pandemic response
plan, prior to March,” Masteller said. “We have an
emergency response plan that we exercise annually,
but it was geared for earthquakes and natural
disasters.” '
Aside from a supplemental leave policy drafted
and shared by the Clallam PUD, the bulk of Mason
PUD 1’s plan was developed by its employees during
extended sessions that spilled out of the manager’
office and into the PUD’s parking lot. ’
“They were all really great about rolling with
the changes,” Masteller said. “We would decide to
do something one way, then someone would have a
better idea two days later, so we’d pick up and change
course.”
PUD 1 Board President Ron Gold recounted how
the board of commissioners approved a pandemic
leave policy to allow people to stay home if they were
exposed, and to set up office staff to work from home
so they could continue to work. “The hardest thing we
had to work around was the telework stations for our
administrative personnel,” said Masteller, pointing
out that not everyone could work remotely because
not everyone had high-speed internet at home. “We
didn’t have enough office phones to send home. We
didn’t have VPNs. We don’t have an in-house IT
department. We tried to bring' everyone back this
summer, only to have the COVID cases spike again
and send everyone back home.”
Masteller cited the ingenuity and commitment
of the PUD’s operations crews in coordinating their
shifts and crews to avoid any threat of cross-contam-
ination, commending them for “arranging their home
lives around their work schedules, as they often do.”
Gold commended PUD staff for putting extra effort
into keeping the public informed and working to
secure grants and other aid to help customers strug-
gling to pay utility bills. _
The PUD’s initial actions in March included the
suspension of disconnections and late fees, the allow—
ance of long-term payment plans and the postpone-
ment of planned rate increases. The utility secured
and disbursed more than $57,000 in CARES Act
funding to 148 customer accounts in Mason and south
Jefferson counties.
According to Masteller, many of those measures
were motivated not only by the growth in COVID cases
through February and March, but by the absence of
guidance.
“I kept waiting for someone else to jump first and
take action, but no one did,” Masteller said. “The infor-
mation we were getting from the federal government
was contradictory and uncoordinated, and it didn’t
mesh with what state and local healthdepartments
were recommending.”
Masteller recommended, and the PUD commission
agreed, that Mason PUD 1 should take the leap and
figure it out as they went, rather than get caught flat-
footed by sick employees or a shutdown in its supply
chain. ,
“We did not expect that the Governor’s Office
would implement a moratorium on disconnections,”
Masteller said. “We did it because we knew it was the
right thing to do. We know who we work for. I expect
many of us will continue several of these measures
long after the moratorium is lifted.” V
The PUD also joined with local businesses to
provide supplies such as hand sanitizer, personal
protective equipment, bleach and peroxide for water-
system testing, and paper products. Masteller praised
the PUD’s customers and community partners as
much as its employees for contributing to the success
of the utility’s efforts.
“We’ve made a big emphasis on supporting our
local economy and residents by making deals with
local stores for supplies, plus fuel for our fleet from the
gas stations in our system, and the distillery for hand
sanitizer,” Masteller said. “Local restaurants have
delivered lunch to our offices so we could stay isolated.
We still order lunch from local restaurants at least
twice a week, for those of us working on-site, and we
preordered all our yearly printing at once from local
print shops to keep them working a little bit longer.”
PUD employees have also kept local auto detailers
and windshield repairers busy, she said.
“If businesses and individuals who have stayed
working can look for ways, even once a month, to
support each other, it all adds up and can make an
impact,” Masteller said. “We have to look out for one
another.” I
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