County fumbles public communication on phone outage

By Brandi Makuski

PORTAGE COUNTY — A nearly full-day phone outage at Portage County offices on Dec. 29 was marked by long delays, vague public notices, and a lack of follow-up communication with both residents and the press.

County officials were notified of the outage at 5:37 a.m. Dec. 29, but did not issue any public notice until 1:27 p.m., more than seven hours later. That notification, posted without additional context, stated only: “Portage County Phone System is Temporarily Down.”

An email from the county executive’s office followed at 1:35 p.m., offering slightly more detail but no estimated restoration time or explanation of the cause.

Phone service was restored around 3 p.m. Dec. 29, according to County Executive John Pavelski. But no notice confirming the system was back online was issued that day.

The next — and final — update did not come until 3:02 p.m. Dec. 30, when the county notified media outlets that the phone outage had been repaired the previous afternoon.

Residents attempting to reach county departments during the outage were met with unanswered calls, while the Portage Co. Communication Center fielded additional calls from people unsure why offices could not be reached, even as dispatch was already handling storm-related activity.

Pavelski said the outage was caused by a modem failure triggered by a power disruption at the county’s Annex early Dec. 29. He said staff initially believed the issue would be resolved quickly, which contributed to the lack of immediate public updates.

“We assumed we were going to be back up shortly,” Pavelski said.

He said internal confusion over responsibility for public communication compounded the problem. Pavelski said IT Director Shane Gollnick believed the information had been distributed by David Hickethier, Portage County’s corporation counsel, who also serves as the county’s public information officer.

Hickethier, Pavelski said, believed Gollnick had already sent the information out.

“One part of the organization thought another person handled it,” Pavelski said. “Nobody did.”

Pavelski said the county plans to install an uninterrupted power supply to protect critical phone equipment, explore redundant routing options that would allow calls to be shifted quickly during outages, and review internal communication procedures to clarify when and how public notices must be issued.

The county’s phone system remains fully operational.