By Catharin Shepard • Editor • Westgate resident Rob Murcko found out Friday that a subcontractor for Brightspeed Internet had accidentally cut his water line, when the water pressure went out at his home.

“They didn’t try to tell me. We noticed there was no water at our house. I went out there, I got pictures of the busted line…they patched it and re-buried it,” Murcko said.

The water service was restored after about an hour and a half, but the line will have to be replaced. Murcko got in touch with the Brightspeed claims department, but as of Monday, hadn’t heard back from them. The resident said he was told at one point that he would have to pay out of pocket to fix the break himself, and then would get reimbursed by Brightspeed.

“I said no, it don’t work that way,” he said.

The subcontractor also drove heavy equipment into his yard, Murcko said.

“First of all, they put a 5,000-pound piece of equipment in my front yard, which they are not allowed to do without my permission. So, I have tracks in my front yard,” he said. 

Others in the Westgate neighborhood have also had problems, Murcko said.

It was a recent example of an issue that Andrew Jacobs, Hoke County Emergency Management coordinator and grants manager, brought up at the recent commissioners’ retreat in Charlotte.

The county doesn’t have any control over these installations. Much of the time, they only learn about it when accidents happen.

During the commissioners’ retreat two weeks ago, Jacobs proposed that the county should change that. He recommended Hoke County implement a process that would require companies to keep the county in the loop when they’re out digging to install internet or other types of service lines.

“This is something that came out of a task force that the county manager set up at the beginning part of the year. We have a ton of underground boring, excavation work that is attacking our infrastructure, I guess is the best word to say,” Jacobs said at the retreat. “It’s about tracking, it’s about accountability.”
Jacobs gave an example of an incident from December that wasn’t a county-owned piece of infrastructure.

“There was a firm that was working behind a business, digging a four-inch gas main, and just left it. It was discovered that night when a facility down the road, their HVAC…they went, man, something smells like gas,” he said. 

The natural gas sucked inside the business was found to be two times above the explosive limit. The people responsible “didn’t call or say anything to anybody,” Jacobs said.

He proposed creating a work permit process that would require companies to obtain a permit from the county before doing boring or excavation work. That way the county can keep track of who’s digging, where they’re digging and why they’re digging.

Jacobs pointed to the city of Wilmington as one municipality that already requires a permit for this kind of work. Some counties in the area also have similar requirements.

“I think it is extremely important to know who’s where and what kind of work they’re doing,” he said. “It’s not just county infrastructure. We have a lot of fiber that’s going in the ground, fiber internet, and it is extremely costly. We have underground power with all these subdivisions.”

Asked about the incident from Friday, Jacobs said this kind of thing “comes in waves” as different providers move in to an area.

“Jurisdictions everywhere are kind of facing the same thing. I don’t know why it occurs, but it’s evident,” he said.

When one internet provider moves in, its competitors often see an opportunity and also begin expanding their service area, too, Jacobs pointed out.

In the meantime, Murcko is still trying to deal with the damage. Besides contacting Brightspeed, the Westgate resident also tried contacting the sheriff’s office to file a report about the damage. He said he wasn’t given the chance to do so.

Then, he contacted Hoke County Utilities Director James McQueen about the issue. McQueen was even on the phone with him when a member of the subcontractor team refused to provide a phone number for Brightspeed, Murcko said.

McQueen was reportedly looking into the matter. McQueen’s department “is very responsive” to issues with outside companies running into water lines, Jacobs said.

The News-Journal reached out to Brightspeed’s public relations for comment. 

“We researched the issue and learned that, during the installation of our fiber network, our contracted crew inadvertently damaged a local homeowner’s irrigation line. There was no evidence of damage at that time, so the crew was unaware. However, when the crew returned to complete work in the area late last week, the homeowner alerted the crew of the damage. The supervisor on site exchanged information with the homeowner and is working to ensure it is repaired to the customer’s satisfaction,” a public relations director for the company said in an email.

“When our fiber deployment requires digging, we follow all municipality permitting processes, including utility locates, and receive approvals to do the work in public right of ways. Sometimes, there are privately placed facilities in the public right of way such as home sprinkler systems. The locate process does not mark private facilities. Unfortunately, that is what happened in this case.”

The county commissioners would need to take action on Jacobs’ proposal to update the county’s ordinance, to create a work permit process for tracking when companies are excavating.