Phone line debacle’s guilty party must atone

Someone’s lines are clearly crossed when it comes to the right person

taking the blame for hundreds of West Newport residents and

businesses being without phone service for a good chunk of last week.

Tuesday, construction workers building a new medical office at

Orange Avenue and Old Newport Boulevard severed some 6,000 phone

lines. That part of the story isn’t in dispute.

What is still unclear is whether officials at SBC, which manages

the city’s phones, gave the OK for the lines to be cut, thinking them

all unused.

SBC says no, that the subcontractor for GKK Works, the Newport

Beach-based contractor for the project, was told the exact opposite

-- to leave the wires alone.

At some point, we suspect, the truth of this mishap will come out,

and someone or some company is going to look worse than needed.

Whoever made the mistake -- whether SBC in thinking the wires were

dead or Professional Electrical Contractors of Anaheim in discounting

orders from the phone company -- will likely have a hefty sum to pay

and scores of residents and business owners to handle.

The situation only will be harder to handle for having been

handled so poorly to this point.

SBC, though, has handled the aftermath of the situation well,

sending workers out to the site and working around the clock to get

phone service back up. The company has likely earned some goodwill

from residents here.

Now, it is time for the guilty party to take the right step toward

earning back the goodwill of the community by acknowledging the

mistake and quickly and properly making amends.