By David Haerle
The Daily World
When Dave Ward does eventually retire some time in the spring — after more than seven years at the helm of the Grays Harbor PUD — he still has some lofty goals left in life.
“I want to travel … I want to go to Machu Picchu in Peru and to Nepal. I want to take my wife back there.”
When Ward was working with Tacoma Public Power some years back, he traveled four times to Nepal to help on an electrical project there. Now he wants to go back to “bag some peaks,” a term used by avid hikers who seek to sit atop a region’s highest heights.
Ward, 60, has served as general manager of the PUD since 2007. To ensure a smooth transition, in the coming months, the PUD will begin the process of hiring a new general manager who will assume managerial duties when Ward departs.
Ward believes this is not only a good time for new chapters in his life, but also an opportune time for the PUD to transition to new administrative leadership.
“I’ve been in the industry for 35 years now, and I’ve planned for this time,” he said. “I think it’s a good time for transition at the PUD too.”
Ward noted that in the coming years, all of the PUD’s current power-supply contracts are set to expire and said it was a “good opportunity to see how we buy power and from whom.”
“It will be good to have someone at the helm who can provide continuity over that period,” he said. “These agreements have been in place for over 20 years and times have changed and needs have changed. For me, it’s a really good time.”
Besides that challenge for his eventual predecessor, Ward said the PUD likely should and will push for more economic development on the Harbor to help improve its customer base, which once had numerous industrial customers, but now caters to a largely residential and moderate- to low-income customer base.
“Economic development will be important,” Ward said. “We could use some new manufacturing on the Harbor from a revenue standpoint. This is a capital-intensive industry. Everything keeps aging and you have to keep your infrastructure up. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that so far.”
With residential demands and revenue often being weather-dependent, Ward said the PUD’s revenue stream is not as steady and predictable as in past decades.
“To me, that’s why economic development is so important,” he said.
And Ward said that while the Covid-19 pandemic and all its challenges didn’t hasten his impending departure, he did say it helped make his retirement decision a bit easier.
“I want to be able to travel when all this is over,” he said. “Both my kids live on the East Coast. It’s going to be a year since I have last seen them. I want to be able to spend more time with them. And I like the outdoors. I want to hike and climb, so I want to do more of that — and I want to spend more time with my wife.”
He also said the pandemic has forced the PUD to change the ways it conducts business, especially internally.
“We’ve had to separate people out,” he said when it comes to social distancing in the work place. “It’s just not the same doing everything on Zoom. The collaboration that comes from getting people from different perspectives together in a room is missing.” And Ward said he misses that aspect of his job.
Ward said more than anything, this just seems like the right time to move on.
“I didn’t want to leave the organization (at the PUD) hanging,” he said. “I have really enjoyed the place.”
