​South Bend, Washington – Pacific County Sheriff Scott Johnson announced changes to the Sheriff’s Office command staff including a retirement, promotion, and new appointment.  In November Chief Civil Deputy Debbie Allison, who has been employed by Pacific County in excess of 30 years, announced her intent to retire effective December 31, 2013.  Sheriff Johnson expressed his appreciation of Allison’s years of service and work ethic, stating that he values her attitude and principles, always treating issues as if they were her personal responsibility with the intent to work in the interest of the taxpayer and citizen safety.   

With the retirement of Deputy Allison, Sheriff Johnson has appointed Denise Rowlett as Chief Deputy, with responsibility for civil, financial, and administration operations within the office.  Rowlett has been employed with the Sheriff’s Office for over 14 years serving as Deputy Director of Emergency Management since 2008.  
Sheriff Johnson has appointed Scott McDougall to fill the position of Deputy Director of Emergency Management.  McDougall joins the office with previous experience in the fire service as well as Pacific County Fair Manager.  
The Sheriff added that he wishes Allison the best in her retirement, and is looking forward to leading the command staff team with those in new roles as we approach 2014. 

South Bend, Washington – Pacific County is currently experiencing a wide-spread but sporadic telephone outage.  Determining the extent of the geographic area impacted has proven to be difficult and service appears to be irregular with residents and businesses next door to each other experiencing differing levels of service.  

Most 9-1-1 lines have been re-routed to business lines and 9-1-1 call taking is functional. Pacific County believes that all wireless 9-1-1 calls are being routed to Grays Harbor County, which is transferring information to Pacific County via radio.  In addition, indications are that some landline calls are not routing appropriately.  Pacific County does not believe any 9-1-1 calls have been dropped. 

The outage is impacting all areas of the county, with reports of service interruptions coming from South Bend, Raymond, Seaview, and Ilwaco.  Long distance dialing has also been impacted.  Further testing is underway at this time.  CenturyLink has informed Pacific County that the outage is related to a fiber optic cut in the Vader area, and that the estimated time of repair is 9:00 p.m.

Again, 9-1-1 call taking is functional.  Updates will be posted to the Pacific County Facebook page as more information becomes available.