By Cheryl Schweizer
Chronicle correspondent

     PATEROS - The city council will vote next month on a proposal for a maintenance and operations agreement with the Douglas County PUD in which the utility would pay the city an annual fee for park maintenance.
     PUD Administrator Bill Dobbins presented the proposal Feb. 16. The PUD would pay the city $60,000 annually, with the payments adjusted for inflation, Dobbins said.
     The city could save some of that money for capital expenses connected with park maintenance.
     The payment would be separate from any money spent to improve the city’s parks. That’s handled through recreation action plans, which would be updated every six years rather than the current five years.
     PUD officials also would work with city officials to obtain additional water rights that would apply only to recreation sites and facilities, with that process completed by 2017.
     In return, the city would agree to support the PUD’s application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for renewal of its license to operate Wells Dam. The M&O agreement would go into effect when the license is renewed in 2012.
     In other business, Dobbins said PUD commissioners have agreed to donate some of the displays in the old Wells Dam visitor center to the city’s new museum, which will go in the city hall space formerly occupied by the Pateros Fire Department.
     The visitor center has been closed since the 2001 terrorist attacks; city officials toured the exhibits and asked for some of the displays.
     Commissioners agreed to give them eight displays, which include Native American artifacts and replicas, a mural of prehistoric animals, murals and information on early settlers and the area’s geography.