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Blue Peak outlines cause of April outage, details resident restoration and complaints process
Summary
Blue Peak Fiber told Casper City Council a subcontractor struck an unmarked underground cable April 22, prompting an outage; the company described its resident notification and restoration process and said it will share direct contact information for follow-up.
Lucas Peterson, government affairs representative for Blue Peak Fiber Internet, told the Casper City Council at its pre-meeting that a subcontractor strike on April 22 caused a service outage. "We had a subcontractor crew ... They were doing permitted and authorized work," Peterson said, and the crew had submitted an 811 locate request before digging.
Peterson said the strike occurred because an unmarked underground fiber line owned by another provider was not located and was hit during the work. "Once it occurred, our contractors immediately stopped work, contacted that provider, stayed on-site, until they got there, and then also assisted, as they could to help bring service back online," he said.
Randy Butler, Blue Peak's director of government affairs, described the company's resident communications and remediation workflow. He said the company sends a postcard about 30 days before construction, a follow-up postcard about 15 days before, a letter with FAQs, door-hanger tags about three days before work, and yard signs with QR codes when work begins. Butler said residents who call the listed phone number reach a Blue Peak call center in Sioux Falls staffed by company employees. "Once a call happens, and the complaint happens ... that ticket will then go to Mike. He'll get notification of that ticket, call the resident, ... surveys the property, sees what needs to be done to fix it, and return it back to the state it's supposed to be in," Butler said.
Councilors raised questions about secondary impacts of outages, including whether 911 service and SOS apps would function during outages and how mobile carriers interconnect with fiber providers. Peterson and Butler declined to speak for other network operators. Peterson said Blue Peak confirmed it submitted the locate ticket to utilities and that it is unclear why the other provider's line went unmarked.
Councilors also described individual constituent complaints about incomplete restoration of private lawns, sprinkler systems and easements. Butler said Blue Peak can reimburse residents or arrange contractors to complete restoration, and that the company has in some cases paid contractors directly to avoid imposing an up-front cost on residents.
Butler offered to circulate business cards and an email contact to the full council so councilors can refer constituent complaints directly to Blue Peak staff. He also said Blue Peak holds weekly or biweekly coordination meetings with city staff during construction season.
Discussion-only items included council suggestions that Blue Peak clarify construction notices to say explicitly when work will cross private property, because several residents reported they expected work only in the street or alley. Butler said he would pass that feedback to the company's marketing team.
Ending: Blue Peak said it will provide direct contact information to councilors and continue coordination meetings with city staff; councilors said they will pass individual cases through the company's ticketing workflow for investigation and restoration.
