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A Glenoma couple has filed a lawsuit against the Lewis County Public Utility District seeking $13 million in damages in response to a plan to install new, advanced metering infrastructure for roughly 30,000 connections.

The lawsuit, filed by William and Alice Budd in Lewis County Superior Court on April 10, asks for $3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $10 million in punitive damages due to “egregious dishonesty, lack of transparency and failure to inform” customers of the “real motives” of the plan.

The lawsuit asks for an immediate injunction against the installation of future meters in Lewis County “until the LCPUD can prove that they are safe.”

In an email, a PUD spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

In a December interview, David Plotz, PUD general manager, said the program has been in the works for several years.

“The advent of smart meters, they’ve been out for some time,” Plotz said. “Many other utilities have already put these in place.”

According to the PUD, the meters allow customers to budget their energy consumption and receive notifications when they exceed their budgets, which could point to faulty appliances or malfunctioning equipment.

“They will lower our costs and they will provide information that isn’t just more accurate but will give us more detail, to make us understand where we need to build resiliency, where we need to improve the infrastructure of Lewis County,” Plotz said. “So by having that data, we can make better decisions.”

According to the lawsuit, none of “the alleged benefits listed on the postcard have any value to” the Budds.

In a complaint, the couple alleged that they have developed negative health effects since the new meter was installed “sometime in late 2023 or early 2024.”

Though the AMI meters use radio frequency, it produces small amounts of radiation. AMI meters only transmit for one and a half seconds every two to four hours. A cordless home phone generates 1,000 times more radio frequency, while cellphones generate 10,000 times more exposure to radio frequency than the new meters, according to previous reporting by The Chronicle.

The PUD maintains a website page for frequently asked questions at https://www.lcpud.org/account-services/advanced-metering-infrastructure-ami/.

For months, the PUD has sought to soothe concerns among some Lewis County residents over perceived negative impacts. A group of residents has used different venues to voice broad concerns over the plan.

In November, roughly 10 community members voiced frustration over the plan at a PUD commissioners meeting. By January, the group took their frustrations to a three-hour “Meet the Manager” meeting at the PUD office in Chehalis and then to a meeting of the Lewis County commissioners.

The new meters are free to customers, though residents can opt out of the installation for a monthly fee that covers staff costs to manually read the meters. Installation began in October and is expected to be completed later this year.

In their complaint, the Budds said the option to turn off the radio transceiver in the new meter did not “resolve the conflict.” The Budds also declined an offer to disconnect from the power grid. In the complaint, the Budds allege the $25 monthly fee to manually read the meters equates to extortion.

“Plaintiff Alice Budd believes that her health is being continually affected by the presence of the transmitting electric meter that is currently on her house and that time is of the essence,” the complaint reads. “The plaintiff will continue to try to come to a meeting of minds with the defendants as this complaint makes its way through the halls of justice.”

The lawsuit alleges the new meters could be part of a “worldwide agenda” to implement a smart grid, which could serve as a “Trojan horse” for nefarious acts.

“The implementation of such a ‘smart grid’ would allow the implementation of a social credit system that is already functioning in communist China to the detriment of the freedom of the Chinese people living there,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit further alleges the planned meter refresh “has many parallels to the COVID vaccination agenda.”

Students of The Evergreen State College have occupied part of the institution’s Red Square as part of a movement across the country in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

University occupations have sprung up across the country following students of New York’s Columbia University, who began their occupation at Columbia’s quad on Wednesday, April 17.

The small group at The Evergreen State College, which appeared to consist of 10 members or less, had set up an encampment of tents and canopies in the Red Square as well as covered the immediate area with Palestinian flags and signage as of Wednesday.

As part of their occupation, which started on April 23, the group demands that The Evergreen State College cut ties with all funding received from Israel, such as the Academic Engagement Network, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization.

Their other demands include that Evergreen not take part in any study abroad programs that would have students in occupied parts of Palestine and that they “pressure (the) state legislature to divest.”

A spokesperson for the group, who didn’t provide a name, said that they are part of an ‘autonomous movement’ and have no affiliation with any student groups or faculty.

The protest appeared to be ongoing as the tents were still present on Thursday, though there were few people in sight.

A Centralia man accused of striking a woman on the head during an argument on Tuesday is facing one count of second-degree assault, domestic violence, in Lewis County Superior Court.

Jimmie Carl Gertson III, 45, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail after Centralia officers responded to a dispute in the 1000 block of Grand Avenue just after 2:15 p.m. on April 23, according to the Centralia Police Department.

The reporting party advised “she saw a female come to the back of the main residence with blood all over her face” and “asked (the reporting party) to call someone to pick her up,” according to court documents.

When questioned by officers, the woman reported she and Gertson started arguing about 20 minutes before officers arrived. According to the woman, “Mr. Gertson got mad and told her to get out of the room,” allowing her to take a cigarette with her but refusing to allow her back into the room to get her phone.

She reported “the argument continued into the living room, where she tripped on something and fell.”

Gertson allegedly “stood over her, yelling at her” while she was on the ground, “so she kicked him with her feet to get him away,” according to court documents. Gertson then allegedly “continued to yell and punched her in the face.”

Gertson allegedly told officers “they were arguing, and that (the woman) was breaking things and hitting him, so he punched her,” according to court documents.

The responding Centralia officers noted the woman “had an approximately 1-and-a-half inch gash in her head that appeared to need stitches.”

Gertson was booked into the Lewis County Jail at 3:05 p.m. on April 23, according to court documents.

His preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for April 24 but has since been rescheduled to May 2. A no-contact order protecting the victim is in place.