Construction of a cofferdam at Post Falls dam continued last week. Ongoing work at the 1906 Post Falls Dam is part of $375 million that Avista Corp. will spend this year on capital upgrades. Utility executives say that costly upgrades to aging infrastructure are driving yearly rate increases. The dam's south channel is getting new spillway gates and a face lift, which will replace the outer concrete layer. (SR photo: Kathy Plonka)

Wendi Dunlap lives in a house in Hillyard with an old furnace. Last winter, the social worker qualified for energy assistance to help pay her Avista bill. Many Spokane families are like hers – working, but struggling to make ends meet, Dunlap told an Avista executive at a recent neighborhood meeting. “You’re constantly asking us to open our wallets,” she said. “I didn’t get a raise last year or the year before.” With the Spokane-based utility proposing its eighth rate increase in eight years, Kelly Norwood, Avista’s vice president for state and federal regulation, has been making the rounds of neighborhood association meetings to discuss the company’s request. If approved by Washington regulators, a typical Spokane household would pay about $140 more for electricity and natural gas each year, for an annual energy bill of about $1,940/Becky Kramer, SR. More here.