M iner Community Newspapers 421 S. Spokane Ave • Newport, Washington 99156
• Newport Miner • Gem State Miner • Miner Extra • Horizon • Printing Services This story involved a government project and the common cost over run. But we felt it was extremely important for our readers to understand how this could happen and what steps, if any, were taken to avoid the over run. We were, of course, looking for the smoking gun – corruption. Understanding this complex story was important because it involved a large sum of public funds and could have hindered the critical public project of installing the first and vital fiber optics network in the community. It could have caused increased power rates for everyone. A potential criminal investigation, civil lawsuit threats and public officials fearing scandals made gathering the necessary information from a four-year process difficult. We used a time consuming process of public records requests, interviews and researching our past stories to investigate. The Pend Oreille Public Utility District received a $27.2 million federal stimulus grant to install fiber to the premises in south Pend Oreille County in 2010. The project began shortly after the PUD received the grant and by 2012, budget issues became a concern. When the grant portion ended in September 2013, the fiber project was sitting at about $37.4 million in costs. The PUD originally reported it was on budget, then reported it was about $1.9 million over budget and at grant closing, was $3.3 million over budget. I submitted a public records request to the PUD basically asking for all the contracts, chain of command, change orders, disciplinary memos and financial reports about the project. Our request was for these documents in any form from print to email. The PUD complied with the request and a meeting was held with The Miner publisher, PUD general council, and myself. We reviewed boxes of files. I compiled this story using the public records received from the PUD, past Miner archives, interviews both on and off the record and extensive Miner news stories on the fiber project. The information was organized into a detailed timeline explaining who was in charge of the project, when leadership changed and noted several dated memos expressing concern with the project being over budget, as early as 2012. In the end, after boiling all this information down, it was clear that there wasn’t enough oversight, the project was larger than proposed and there wasn’t any criminal activity. The smoking gun wasn’t there but that was important for the people to know. -Desireé Hood Reporter Title: Fiber to home and businesses grant completed: What did it cost PUD? Subheads: Additional work and problems cost PUD another $3.3 million Where is CNS today? Timeline
509-447-2433 • Fax: 509-447-9222 • E-mail: theminer@povn.com • www.pendoreillerivervalley.com