‘Severed’ utility line causes temporary 911 call issues across DeKalb County on Wednesday

SYCAMORE – Some phone lines at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and the DeKalb County dispatch center are temporarily down, a result of a phone line unintentionally being severed by utility workers Wednesday, Sheriff Andy Sullivan said.

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office announced the issues in a social media post Wednesday afternoon.

The sheriff’s office oversees 911 dispatch for emergency agencies across the county.

Although the social media post indicated that 911 calls in the county had sporadic issues Wednesday, Sullivan told Shaw Local that 911 lines were working.

“It’s just our nonemergency phone numbers that are not working and are sporadically dropping calls,” Sullivan said.

As of 2:40 p.m., Sullivan said 911 lines were operational.

“The issue was caused from utility workers in the area that were doing underground work and severed a line,” Sullivan said.

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office wasn’t the only facet of county government affected by the fiber optic issue.

The city of DeKalb issued a citywide alert Wednesday afternoon announcing that the city also was “experiencing technical difficulties with its phones.”

DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder Tasha Sims said her office’s phone and internet were down as of 3 p.m., and voters were being affected.

“Early voting here [in Sycamore] and in DeKalb are very intermittent,” Sims said.

Sullivan said he wasn’t sure when the issues would be resolved.

“They are working to repair the connection, but we do not have a timeline as of yet,” Sullivan said.