MORGANTOWN — No cell service.
No land lines.
Kathy Sine, who lives in the area of Statler Run and Jakes Run, in western Monongalia County, said her home has been without phone service since early last week.
“Something has got to happen,” she said. “There’s no way to contact anyone. A lot of people count on their land lines out here. So when you can’t contact emergency services because you have no land line and you have no cell phone service, what’s going happen?”
The loss of cell service is not new.
An ongoing project to replace a communications tower located on Catherine’s Knob, off Daybrook Road, knocked out service for a number of U.S. Cellular customers in November.
“At least we had something. That’s why we went with U.S. Cellular and so many people out our way had U.S. Cellular, because we actually got a little bit of service with that tower being there, but we lost the little bit of service we had when they did that,” she said. “I can’t get texts and you can’t call out where I am.”
Then, last week, land lines in the area began to fall silent.
Sines said there is a severed line and pole leaning over along Statler Run. Sines said her phone has been out of action since last Tuesday.
The Dominion Post reached out to Frontier Communications and West Side Telecommunications, both of which provide service in the area.
A representative of West Side Telecommunications said the company dispatches crews to any reported outages the same day and has no customers without service.
Frontier did not respond in time for this report.
According to Sines, Frontier told customers in the area that the company is waiting on equipment and cannot provide a timeline as to when service will be restored.
In the meantime, she said she’s hopeful land lines are restored before something bad happens.
“It’s just an area where you can’t get decent cell phone service and you can’t get decent Internet service. So we’re forced to have a land line and now we’re without land lines,” she said. “That’s a big concern.”
As for cell service, MECCA 911 Director Jim Smith said the new 340-foot, freestanding communications tower is expected on site next week and will take about two weeks to construct.
Smith said he’s still awaiting confirmation that U.S. Cellular will place its equipment on the new structure, though placement is anticipated as the carrier continues to operate a temporary mobile unit in the area.
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