Haffner draws challenger in Clallam PUD race

PORT ANGELES — The final day of candidate filing produced a race for commissioner in the Clallam County Public Utility District as Tom La Rosa of Port Angeles filed to run against Hugh Haffner for his District 2 seat.

But no other new candidates emerged as having had paperwork entered by the Clallam County Auditor’s Office as the final day of filing closed for the Aug. 19 primary election.

Ballots for the all-mail top-two primary election will be mailed to overseas and military voters July 20, and to local addresses Aug. 1.

They must be returned by Aug. 19.

La Rosa works in the Sequim maintenance shop of the Clallam County Roads Department. He could not be reached for comment on Friday or Saturday.

Haffner, 60, works as an attorney in private practice.

He has served 14 years on the board, winning his second six-year term in 2002 by defeating Bill Roberds, president of Capacity Provisioning Inc.

Clallam PUD is governed by a three-person board of directors elected to six-year terms.

It has 130 employees that work in offices and shops in Sequim, Carlsborg, Port Angeles, Forks and Clallam Bay/Sekiu.

It serves about 28,500 electricity customers in Sequim, Forks and the unincorporated areas of Clallam County plus the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill.

It also operates nine water systems that serve about 4,200 customers throughout the county: Fairview, Gales, Mount Angeles, Monroe, Carlsborg, Clallam, Panoramic, Evergreen and Island View.

The district also built a 24-mile fiber optic loop between Port Angeles and Sequim and operates a small sewer department with a 2008 budget of $26,120.

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