It’s been a long five years for Jefferson County Public Utility District (PUD) since it took over giant Puget Sound Energy’s county holdings in April 2013.

The lights never went off during that handoff, but the thrill of being the first Washington state utility in 60 years to switch from private to public ownership has dimmed a bit.

That’s not to say that the PUD shouldn’t have taken on the historic challenge of becoming both a water and electric utility, only that it’s been hard. Truly, change can be challenging.

Perhaps with a new general manager coming on board, it’s time for the utility and the community to consider a reboot. It would be nice if we could turn off the acrimony of the past few years, and especially the past few months with the discussion of smart meters.

The smart meter issue went off the track, as one on the PUD’s own Citizen Advisory Board members suggested it might several years ago, when the PUD decided to invite public comment after it had selected the type of meter to use and after the bid on the meters had gone out.

In hindsight, the public should have been welcomed to the discussion table before all of that happened.

But recently, the conversation over smart meters has devolved. Not surprisingly, in this day and age, people appear entrenched in camps, unwilling to hear anything that doesn’t fit in with their own personal set of facts. The smart meter debate has been neither civil nor healthy for the community.

PUD commissioners have wisely put the smart meter project on hold until after a new manager and a new chief financial officer are on board to push the train back on the track and get things going again.

Once the new manager is on board, assistant general manager Kevin Streett can go back to doing what he does best, which is keeping the system up and running. Streett isn’t a politician. He’s been in the business for more than 30 years, working in Arizona, Alaska and Saudi Arabia before stepping into Jefferson County. He’s been steadfast through a lot of trials and tribulations at the PUD.

Five years ago, when asked how he felt about being the PUD’s first electrical superintendent, a matter of days before the PUD flipped the switch and went public, Streett told The Leader: “Our customers mean something to us, and we’re going to try to show them they can trust us. It’s such a fun time here.”

He was right. So let’s reboot the community conversation.

There’s no turning back. This is our utility. It needs to move into the future.

Let’s all make it the best it can be, and that includes engaging in civil discourse over complicated issues like smar tmeters.

– Allison Arthur