PUD GM Nominated for Chamber Business Leader of the Year Award

Jefferson PUD General Manager, Kevin Streett, has been nominated for the 2023 Jefferson Chamber Business Leader of the Year award. The award winner will be announced at the Chamber Leadership Awards banquet on Saturday, March 25, 2023, at 4:30pm.

The banquet is held at the newly refurbished American Legion Event Hall at 209 Monroe Street in Port Townsend. The event features food, live music, and local author & speaker, Leif Whittaker as the keynote speaker. Tickets are $45 and available online here

The Chamber selection team narrowed down the field of business leaders from over 40 community members to only 3 finalists. The annual award is presented to an individual that demonstrates a history of vision, service, and leadership for the betterment of the Jefferson County community based upon an established a reputation of character, trust, and leadership for others to emulate.

“It’s an honor to be nominated and a finalist for the award,” Streett said. Streett has been General Manager of the PUD since 2019, but his roots with the utility date back to Day 1 when he was hired as the first official PUD employee.

Being first has its risks, but often the greatest rewards, Streett said. Hired as Electric Superintendent, he was tasked with building out the rest of the electric team. He was at the ground-level of building from what began as 5,000-customer water utility into a 20,000-customer water and electric utility.

During the past decade his role has changed from Assistant General Manager to Interim General Manager, and since June of 2019, official General Manager. All the while the mission stayed the same: To better the lives in our community through services offered.

“I’ve spent my career—more than forty years to date—in the electric utility industry and have loved every aspect of it,” he said. What began as summer work on a line crew while on break from Boise State, suddenly took Streett around the world as he worked with various utility crews. His utility journey led him and his family to the high desert where he spent 20 years as Operations Manager at Overton Power District in Nevada to Operations Director at Navopache Electric Co-op in Pinetop, Arizona, prior to coming to Jefferson County. Streett and his wife, Dawn, live in Port Townsend and have 3 grown sons, one of whom graduated from PT High School.