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Phone service across much of the Big Horn Basin has been disrupted by what is believed to be a broken fiber line. Phone lines in Park County, Big Horn County and Hot Springs County have all been impacted, authorities say.
"This is affecting 911 calls as well as AT&T phones, and local TCT phone lines," the Park County Sheriff's Office said in a Tuesday morning Facebook post, adding, "This is believed to be from a fiber cut and technicians have been dispatched to repair it. It's unknown how long this outage will take to get fixed."
Impacted agencies include the sheriff's office, the Powell Police Department, Big Horn County Sheriff's Office and Hot Springs County. However, help remains available, with emergency calls being handled by Washakie County 911 staff.
To contact the Park County Sheriff's dispatch center, call 307-254-0226 and to contact the Powell Police Department call 307-219-1891.
As for Park County's general election, "everything is going smoothly" outside of the phone troubles, Elections Deputy Katie Johnson reported around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday morning.
"All polling locations are up and running and already checking in voters," Johnson said, encouraging residents to go out and vote.
The county's internet connectivity remains intact, she added, so the electronic pollbooks being used at each polling location remain online and operational. Additionally, Johnson said officials at each polling place remain able to call the elections office with routine questions or concerns via landline phones that are on the county's telecommunications network.
However, Johnson did say that members of the general residents should email the elections office with any questions or concerns until the outage is resolved, because they're having issues with both inbound and outbound calls.
"... the best way to contact he office today is at the voterinfo@parkcounty-wy.gov email address,' Johnson said.
For more information about the election, visit parkcounty-wy.gov/county-elections.
