Internet crashes in Sparta

BY JOSEPH PICARD
Sparta — A number of Sparta businesses and at least one department of local government lost the use of the Internet today for several hours. The provider, Century Link, scrambled to restore access and claimed that it had by 3 p.m. But several businesses were still offline into the later afternoon.
“It was an especially hectic day for us, yes,” said Terri Shaw, educational director of the Goddard School of Sparta, located at 107 Main Street. “But we deal with it. We go with the flow.”
Shaw said the building housing the Kindergarten was without Internet use and phone service from 6:30 a.m. to about 3 p.m.
“All of our systems are Internet-based, so certain things had to be put on hold, like assessment of student achievements, until access was restored,” Shaw said. “We use the Internet for a number of student activities. Today we did other activities that don’t require the Internet.”
"It made it very hard to do business," said Frank Gargin of the Allstate Insurance on Woodport Road, where access resumed around 3 p.m. "Now we're trying to catch up."
Uncle Sal’s Pizza II, at 147 Woodport Road, was without Internet or phone throughout the day and beyond 3 p.m.
“I can’t take orders without the phone or the Internet,” said Johnny Hernandez, an employee at Sal’s. “It hurts business. It's been a slow day.”
Next door, at A Cut Above Barber Shop, there was no Internet access since at least 8:40 a.m., when Manny Galicia, an employee, opened up. “Without an Internet connection, there’s no wi-fi, so no one could use the ATM.”
Galicia explained that the shop does not take credit cards, so the on-site ATM is often used by customers. But not today.
“Customers had to go elsewhere to find an ATM. It was very inconvenient,” Galicia said.
He said the shop’s security cameras were also powered by wi-fi and were inoperable while the Internet was down, and it was still down into late afternoon.
“That’s concerning, when it comes time to close up,” he said.
Sparta Police Chief Neil Spidaletto said the police station was minimally affected by the outage, and operations were not hampered.
“We’re equipped with backup and layers of redundancy, so we can work around such issues, which is what we did,” Spidaletto said. “We’re fine here.”
The police department posted a notice on its Facebook page:
“Century Link is experiencing telephone and internet DSL outages in our area. Estimated time of repair 7am Friday June 23. Please do not call the police department or 9-1-1 for updates. We have no further information.”
Century Link, through an automated message on its customer service lines, had used the 7 a.m. June 23 mark for restoration of service. But Debby Keyser, spokesperson for Century Link, later said that service had been restored around 2:50 p.m. That appeared to be accurate for several affected businesses. But others continued offline.
“We still are not sure what caused the outage,” Keyser said around 3 p.m. She declined to say how many customers were affected.
One of those customers was the township’s Department of Public Works, where Internet service was restored around 3 p.m. Township officials declined to comment on the situation.
Internet and phone services of businesses and other entities not provided by Century Link were not disrupted.