Posted at 8:40 a.m., Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Haha'ione phones restored after repairs

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Telephones are ringing again in Haha'ione Valley after Verizon Hawai'i workers finished repairing underground cables this morning that had been damaged by a construction firm.

"Total restoration came at about midnight," said Brian Blevins, a spokesman for Verizon. "All customers are back in service. Just to be on the safe side, a bank of phones at the O'ahu Club will be up until early this afternoon."

The valley's 3,500 Verizon customers have been without service since Thursday afternoon when Foundation International Inc., a contractor doing underground work at an affordable housing project for seniors, accidentally sliced key cables along Hawai'i Kai Drive.

Blevins said the contractor and the developer of the project, Hawaii Intergenerational Community Development Association, would be billed for the $100,000 it cost to make repairs.

"It's a lot of money," Blevins said. "A cost like that you eventually need to pass on to your customers. It is an insult to customers to bill them for that. So just the proper running of our company dictates we lay the costs where they are associated."

Foundation officials refused to comment on the accident. The developer, Mike Klein, did not return telephone calls.

Blevins said it isn't difficult for contractors to find out where the telephone cables are buried.

"We can identify where our cables are located if contaractors call us," he said. "There is a phone number in the beginning of the phone book. Most contractors are aware of that."

Mike Gordon can be reached by phone at 525-8012, or by e-mail at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.