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WEDNESDAY, August 27, 2014 VOL. 47, NO. 35 75¢ islandssounder.com
CenturyLink fined $170,000 for outage by CALI BAGBY Assistant Editor
Last week, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission recommended that CenturyLink be penalized to the tune of $170,000 for the 10-day outage last November that wreaked havoc on the islands. Orcas Council chairman Rick Hughes said he is glad that UTC, the state agency responsible for regulating the telecom industry, has taken this step, but he wonders if it’s enough. “I want to know if they have made any changes, is there better customer service or proof of redundancy?” asked Hughes. “If not, I don’t think they have been fined enough.” He noted that with three major outages in one year, he does not have the utmost faith that islanders can rely on CenturyLink. “Especially when it comes to 911, we need safety and security when it comes to communications,” he said. During the outage that started on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, telephone and internet services, including most cell phones, were unavailable to all – except county offices and some businesses utiliz-
ing OPALCO Island Network broadband facilities. By Thursday, CenturyLink, owner and operator of the high-capacity fiber cable, had located the break in San Juan Channel and marshaled divers, technicians, a large repair barge with a crane, two tugboats and other assorted machinery to address the break. CenturyLink said it was working “around the clock” to restore service. Failure of 911 emergency communications was an immediate concern for public safety officials, who scrambled to alert islanders to the outage and provide patchwork emergency telephone communications on each island. Use of 911 service was restored by Monday, Nov. 11. The recently recommended penalty would be in addition to credits, totaling $271,000, that the company credited in February to the accounts of affected customers. CenturyLink has also committed more than $500,000 for system improvements to ensure back-up service in the event of a future outage. The investigation confirms that the 10-day service outage resulted from a severed underwater fiber cable that separated the Friday Harbor switch from the CenturyLink network. The investigation also concludes that the company violated
Steve Wehrly photo
CenturyLink Northwest Region President Brian Stading in 2013 holding a section of underwater fiber-optic cable, similar to the one that runs between Lopez and San Juan Islands. state laws and rules related to major outages, as well as requirements for communicating outage information to the public. “I’m very pleased with the strength of the UTC staff ’s recommendations to what was a serious 10-day crisis on the San Juan Islands last November,” said Sen. Kevin
Ranker, D-Orcas Island. “Not only were the islands cut off from the rest of the world, first responders reported two significant medical incidents during the outage in which two elderly residents tried unsuccessfully to call for help. UTC staff found
Convicted sex offender back behind bars by SCOTT RASMUSSEN Journal editor
A San Juan Island man who recently served six months for a felony sex offense faces a new round of criminal charges for allegedly spending time with a woman and her child shortly after his release from jail. On Aug. 6, Troy Fitzgerald Niebling was taken into custody by the San Juan County Sheriff ’s Department on the heels of a complaint about the 49-year-old spending time with the woman and her child. Convicted in February of one count of voyeurism, a Class C felony, Niebling turned himself in to the Sheriff ’s Department upon learning that a warrant had been issued for his arrest, according
to Undersheriff Bruce Distler. He was taken into custody on a State Department of Corrections warrant and transported by plane to Island County jail later that day. He was then transferred to a “violators facility” at the Snohomish County jail to await a hearing on the alleged violation of terms of his court-ordered probation, Distler said. A registered sex offender, Niebling was ordered to serve six months in jail in mid-March after pleading guilty to the felony sex offense. He reportedly was released Aug. 5 from Island County jail. According to the Sheriff ’s Department, San Juan County is home to 26 sex offenders at the lowest risk level and five listed as moderate risk to re-offend.
Washington state is home to more than 12,000 registered sex offenders, according to the department. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Norah West said that Niebling is scheduled to appear at an Aug. 20 hearing in the Snohomish violators facility on allegations that he had contact with a minor, a violation of terms of his probation. He was ordered to serve 30 months in community custody as part of the sentence handed down in San Juan County Superior Court in March, a duration beyond the state standard, which, according to court documents, was imposed because of a history of sex offenses. A year ago in May, Niebling was accused of secretly taking photographs and video footage of his then-teenage daughter having sex
with her boyfriend, and of storing those images on his computer. Authorities at that time claimed the photos and video were taken by Niebling in late spring of 2009, through a window of the girl’s bedroom at their Sutton Road home. She was 17 at the time. The images reportedly were still on the hard drive as of September 2012. Prior to his conviction in March, Niebling was also convicted in Minnesota of possession of child pornography in 1992, according to court documents. In addition to six months in jail and 30 months in community custody, he was also ordered in mid-March to pay $1,024 in restitution to San Juan County for the costs of transporting witnesses in preparation for a trial.
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