WENATCHEE — A commissioner of Chelan County’s public utility district is apologizing to electrical linemen for a joke about their work habits.
Dave Pflugrath, president of the utility’s board of commissioners, said he regrets a joke he told reporters last week.
"What’s yellow and sleeps four?" Pflugrath asked reporters. The punch line was "a PUD truck with four linemen."
This week, Pflugrath submitted "an open letter to the employees of Chelan County PUD" for publication in The Wenatchee World.
"Please accept my apology," he wrote. "I have the highest regard for the employees at Chelan PUD and the work they have done."
He thanked the linemen who took him to task at a recent public meeting.
Apple processing plant sold: Stemilt Growers Inc. has purchased the properties, equipment and offices of the closed Chief Wenatchee apple processing cooperative. Chief Wenatchee recently closed its doors because of financial problems after 56 years in operation. The acquisitions allowed Stemilt to expand its position in the tree fruit industry to focus on custom packaging, said Roger Pepperl, Stemilt’s marketing manager. The Chief Wenatchee property has its own controlled atmosphere storage, packing facilities and offices within minutes of Stemilt’s Wenatchee plant.
Innocent plea in stabbing death: Two teen-agers have pleaded innocent in the stabbing death of a prostitute found in a park. Michael Dean Koehler Jr., 17, of Kent, pleaded innocent Friday to charges of first-degree murder in King County Superior Court. Gregory Lee Torres, 17, of Kent, entered his plea Thursday. The two will be tried as adults because of the violent nature of the crime. The body of Melissa Ann Marshall, 34, was found Aug. 21 beside a jogging trail in Lake Fenwick Park. She had been stabbed about 90 times.
Bogus police officer: Police were searching for a man posing as an officer who may be responsible for stalking a woman, raping another, and a shooting. Police have no evidence to link the same man to the three incidents reported last month. But each assailant was described as 20 to 40 years old, about 6 feet tall and wearing a holstered pistol and a blue shirt similar to those worn by a police officer or a security guard, police spokesman Duane Fish said Friday. Fish said police don’t believe the man is an officer. Incidents have been reported in the Magnolia area and the Queen Anne area.
From Herald news services
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