Internet outages pepper Grant and Douglas counties Wednesday
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 9 months AGO
Internet customers peppered across Grant and Douglas counties saw outages after a Douglas County crew accidentally damaged internet lines Wednesday.
COURTESY PHOTO/BRANDEE MILLER
MOSES LAKE — A Douglas County Public Utility District work crew is working to fix a problem with a fiber optic line feeding into Grant County on Wednesday that caused problems for Internet and cell phone service for some customers across Grant County.
“A main fiber line that feeds into Grant County was cut in Douglas County,” wrote Grant County Public Utility District Ryan Holterhoff in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. “Douglas County PUD’s fiber crews are on-site actively working to repair the issue.”
“They will need to fix the conduit and pull and splice new fiber to restore service,” Holterhoff added.
Holterhoff said the work should be completed and full Internet and cell phone service restored by 1 a.m. Thursday.
The outages were patchy and sporadic, Holterhoff said, affecting some service providers but not others, and some areas of Grant County and not others.
CORRECTION: Initial reports to the Herald indicated that a Douglas PUD crew had accidentally cut the fiber optic line being repaired. However, updates from sources indicates that there is no confirmed cause.
MORE STORIES
ARTICLES BY CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Potato prices up, sales down for first quarter 2023
DENVER — The value of grocery store potato sales rose 16% during the first three months of 2023 as the total volume of sales fell by 4.4%, according to a press release from PotatoesUSA, the national marketing board representing U.S. potato growers. The dollar value of all categories of U.S. potato products for the first quarter of 2023 was $4.2 billion, up from $3.6 billion for the first three months of 2022. However, the total volume of potato sales fell to 1.77 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 1.85 billion pounds during the same period of 2022, the press release noted. However, total grocery store potato sales for the first quarter of 2023 are still above the 1.74 billion pounds sold during the first three months of 2019 – a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press release said.
WSU Lind Dryland Research Station welcomes new director
LIND — Washington State University soil scientist and wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey was a bit dejected as he stood in front of some thin test squares of stunted, somewhat scraggly spring wheat at the university’s Lind Dryland Research Station. “As you can see, the spring wheat is having a pretty tough go of it this year,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging to stand in front of plots that are going to yield maybe about seven bushels per acre. Or something like that.” Barely two inches of rain have fallen at the station since the beginning of March, according to station records. Pumphrey, speaking to a crowd of wheat farmers, researchers, seed company representatives and students during the Lind Dryland Research Station’s annual field day on Thursday, June 15, said years like 2023 are a reminder that dryland farming is a gamble.
Wilson Creek hosts bluegrass gathering
WILSON CREEK — Bluegrass in the Park is set to start today at Wilson Creek City Park. The inaugural event is set to bring music and visitors to one of Grant County’s smallest towns. “I've been listening to bluegrass my whole life,” said the event’s organizer Shirley Billings, whose family band plays on their porch every year for the crowd at the Little Big Show. “My whole family plays bluegrass. And I just wanted to kind of get something for the community going. So I just invited all the people that I know and they’ll come and camp and jam.” ...