PUD honored with communication award

October 1, 2007

Columbia River People's Utility District (PUD) has been named the winner of the Northwest Public Power Association's (NWPPA) Tom Hougan Award for Overall Excellence in Communication. PUD Communication Specialist Libby Calnon accepted the award at the NWPPA's Annual Excellence in Communication Awards Dinner in Sun Valley, Idaho on September 25th.

"This award represents our commitment to communicating effectively with our customers," said PUD General Manager Kevin Owens. "It is also a testament to our talented communications and information technology staff who support our communications efforts."

The award is named after Tom Hougan, who was dedicated to the Excellence in Communication competition. He was instrumental in founding and guiding the competition and was a member of the judging panel for almost 10 years until his death in 2002. Since then, NWPPA has been proud to remember him with the Tom Hougan Award for Overall Excellence in Communication.

Previous winners of the award are Snohomish County PUD, Everett, Wash. (2002); Clark Public Utilities, Vancouver, Wash. (2003); Midstate Electric Cooperative, La Pine, Ore. (2004); Golden Valley Electric Association, Fairbanks, Alaska (2005); and McMinnville Water & Light, McMinnville, Ore. (2006).

In addition to winning the Tom Hougan award, the PUD won awards in five of the six categories of competition. The PUD's website received the only perfect score of the competition and earned first place in that category. The PUD also received first place for its annual report, second place in the wild card category and third place awards in the photography and media/ad campaign categories.

The NWPPA is an organization of some 149 public/people's utility districts, electric cooperatives, municipalities and crown corporations who serve approximately 5 million customers in the Western U.S. and Canada.

They provide training and education, public information, communication, federal legislative coordination, surveys, data and networking opportunities and products and services for the utility industry.

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For more information, contact Libby Calnon, PUD Communication Specialist, at lca@crpud.org or (503) 366-3264.

Columbia River People's Utility District provides electric service to 18,100 customers in Columbia and Multnomah Counties in Oregon.

The PUD employs 48 people and had FY2006 gross revenues of $28.8 million.