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Nevada Bell explains phone service disruption
NCRH employees implicated in neglect case
According to Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke, the
Attorney General's office issued a warrant for an individual
and served it at around 11:00 a.m. Tuesday. The subject
apprehended was described as a female with the last name of
Paul. Nye County Detention Center would not release the
subject's fh'st name.
"From what I understand, it involved the alleged abuse of
an elderly patient," Lieseke said.
The PVGazette contacted the hospital and spoke with
Interim Administrator Bill Welch. He said that he was re-
quested by the Attorney General's Office not to speak about
the events that took place for at least five days.
"I usually try to cooperate with the newspapers, but this
time, rve been asked not to comment. We are working closely
with the Attorney General's Office in this matter."
The PVGazette will be looking into this matter and will
update the situation as it occurs. The Attorney General's
Office is expected to issued a statement sometime next week.
by Andy. Holtmann
PVG Staff.
Several employees of the Nye County Regional Hospital
in Tonopah are under scrutiny by the state Attorney General's
Office after an investigation and apparent arrest on Tuesday,
November 25.
There are unconfu'med reports from the Attorney General's
Office that at least one and possibly as many as three employees
of the hospital were under criminal investigation as of late
Tuesday night. The one alleged arrest involved what was said to
be a female employee of the hospital. Sources close to the
PVGazette indicated that two charges were filed; criminal ne-
glect of a patient and abuse, neglect and exploitation of patients.
The Attorney General's Office did confu'm that criminal
complaints were filed with the Medicaid Fraud unit and that
Timothy Terry was in charge of the investigation. Neither
Terry or Medicaid attorney Mark Kemberling were available
for comment.
by Andy Holtmann
PVG Staff
Roughly 650 Pahrump residents were without phone ser-
vice for part of last week. According to Nevada Bell represen-
tatives though, this outage was no accident.
The disconnection was part of Nevada Bell's plan to bring
advanced communication technology to the Pahrump area. At
midnight on Saturday, November 15 the phone company
switched to a Digital Multi-plexing System (DMS). This new
system allows for digital and fiber optic technology to be used
in association with communications.
In order to complete the switch, Nevada Bell had to transfer
equipment to a new facility on the corner of Wilson and Blagg
Roads. The switch caused phone disconnections to several
customers, mostly on the west end of town.
So what does this switch mean to Nevada Bell customers in
Pahrump?
According to John Hull, director of external affairs for
Nevada Bell, phone and intcrnct users will have many more
options and special features to choose from. Some of them
include caller ID, automatic cail return, repeat dialing, select
call forwarding and fast track internet access lines.
"I think users will find that despite the inconvenience, there
is a lot of benefit to the new system," Hull said. "Pahrump is
one of our larger service areas and we wanted to make sum that
we arc providing the most up:to-date ice as ible,"
During the outage, Nevada Bell offered its customers free
local calls from eight pay phones at the Smith's shopping
center at 601 South Highway 160. Those affected by the outage
will also be credited their monthly recurring charges for
November.
According to Nevada Bell spokeswoman Maria Chacon, all
service was restored to their customers by 1:00 p.m. Saturday,
November 22. Nevada Bell said that there were few com-
plaints and the switch was completed without many residents
even knowing about it.
"The change gives Pahrump the full range of custom calling
features available," Chacon said. "From now on, basically
, what any metropolitan city can get, so can Pahrump."
Not everyone though was as pleased with the change as
Nevada Bell representatives. Kenneth Jennings said he wasn't
thrilled about his week long disconnection from the outside
world.
"I was pretty disappointed when I picked up the phone to
make my weekly call to my son in Michigan and found that I
had no service," he sai& "I know that it will benefit in the long
run but in the meantime, some of us have to suffer."
Nevada Bell said they are committed to their customers and
that this was a necessary inconvenience that would ultimately
offer convenience.
"No one wants to he without phone service and we regret
this inconvenience to our customers," said Dick Bostdorff,
vice president and general manager of Nevada Bell. "It's
important that our customers know we'U go the extra mile for
them. We are committed to providing our customers with the
highest quality of service, whatever the circumstance.
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Nov. & Nov.
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