— by Margie Doyle —
Monday, Dec. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Orcas Public Library:
The public is invited to observe the Washington Utilities-Transportation Commission (WUTC) meeting this evening, with the County Council attending, in the Orcas Island Library’s conference room at 500 Rose Street in Eastsound.
The meeting, at the Legislative Hearing Room, 55 Second Street in Friday Harbor, is for the purpose of discussing the recent CenturyTel fiber optic break.
There will not be the opportunity for those viewing the event at the Orcas Public Library to comment “live.” However, questions or comments to the UTC may be emailed during the meeting to Council Clerk Ingrid Gabriel at ingridg@sanjuanco.com.
Gabriel suggests that comment be brief and limited to CenturyLink customers’ affected by the outage. She adds that the WUTC commissioners will decide which comments and questions they will address.
In a Nov. 18 letter to State Senator Kevin Ranker, UTC Chairman David Danner said, “We recognize this outage caused serious disruption and inconvenience to the people of the San Juan Islands. Our investigation will look into the cause of the outage, the company’s emergency preparedness and response, restoration efforts, and communication with the public.”
For more information, call 360.370.7472.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m. and will last until 8 p.m. in the Library Public Conference Room.
Those who would like to attend the meeting in person in Friday Harbor may want to catch the 4:30 p.m. ferry from Orcas to San Juan Island (there is no ferry returning to Orcas Island until 6:10 a.m. tomorrow morning).
