Claude Oliver and Benton County aren't finished with the Department of Energy.

Oliver, the Benton County treasurer during the county's eight-year struggle to collect money from DOE for Hanford property taken off the tax rolls, met Wednesday with the Herald editorial board to talk about the next challenges.

Most involve trying to get more money from DOE.

A little more than a week after DOE paid the first installment on an $11.2 million PILT settlement, or payment in lieu of taxes, Oliver said there are plenty of reasons why the federal government owes Benton County additional help during the next few years as Hanford jobs continue to dip.

For starters, Oliver, who becomes a Benton County commissioner in January, wants DOE to pay the county for work it will do on a management plan for the Hanford Reach.

He also thinks DOE should reimburse Benton County for money spent trying to negotiate the PILT settlement and for the value of some improvements to Hanford property, which wasn't part of the PILT settlement.

He also intends to pursue aggressively collecting more money from the agency, even though some may argue doing so will cut into Hanford's cleanup budget, he said.

Oliver contends jobs will continue to be cut at Hanford, regardless of any additional payments DOE may agree to make.

"If people want to come at us with those kinds of questions in the next five years, we're going to come at them with stronger questions" about DOE's plans for Hanford, he said.

Another source of cash for the county might be a second $51 million claim against the federal government for burdens imposed when DOE studied Hanford as the possible site for an underground high-level nuclear waste repository. That is awaiting a ruling from a three-attorney DOE panel.

A ruling could come any day on that claim, Oliver said.

Finding new jobs in Benton County as the Hanford cleanup continues will be the biggest challenge of all, Oliver said. And it was a big part of why he ran for county commissioner.

"PILT is good, but we're in even more transition now than we were back in 1988" when that claim began, Oliver said.

"There are even more exciting things on the horizon," he said.