By Brenda Starkey
Chronicle correspondent

     REPUBLIC - Ferry County PUD customers won't be getting a rebate following a court ruling against the Bonneville Power Administration, at least not now, PUD commissioners said Feb. 16.
     Last year the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided BPA had been overcharging public power utilities for 20 years, and in March Ferry County PUD received the first of seven expected payments for $300,000.
     BPA now is requesting a 10.2 percent rate increase, which could mean up $190,000 per year, PUD commissioners said.
     "The board has had this money since last March and hasn't notified the public," former commissioner Greg Caudell said in a pre-meeting e-mail circulated to encourage attendance.
     "In my mind Ferry County PUD may be as complicit as BPA in overcharging the public and should return these monies to those that were overcharged, as a rebate," he said. "It would equal approximately $100 for each of the 3,200 customers of the utility, which over seven years would be almost a year's electricity for the customers of Ferry County PUD."
     The PUD has not yet done anything with the money, Commissioner Chris Kroupa said.
     But in recent years since Vaagen Brothers closed its Republic mill and Kinross was working to open the Buckhorn Mine in Okanogan County, the utility district used up its reserves and interest from those reserves.
     The reserves went from $3.59 million in July 2003 to $2.38 million in December 2008, Kroupa said.
     BPA refunds in future years aren't guaranteed, depending on appeals, and no one will be certain about the proposed rate increases until after July 21, he said.
     Kroupa also voiced concerns about how to determine who would get rebates. There might be lawsuits from people who thought they were owed more than they receive and it could cost as much as $100,000 to hire a consultant to figure it all out, he said.
     "You don't rebuild reserves with windfalls. You rebuild them with good management," Caudell said.
     Although Okanogan County PUD decided in a split decision to return its refund to customers, a lot of others are using the funds to replenish their reserves, Kroupa said.
     "The thing that struck me was that perhaps the board could have done a little more to let the public know more about this suit," said Cleve Ives, who also authored a pre-meeting e-mail. "I'm not saying you have to put up a 30-foot billboard."
     The commissioners agreed that they could do more to communicate with their customers and said they would include information with future bills.