One thing you might have missed in the E-Mail from Wes:
Within a year we plan to have a redundant circuit feeding the town of Wrightwood that will be underground, and therefore not in the path of fire as is the case with poles.
I made my living on the internet from 1995 to about 2013. One thing that is always a problem is getting good, solid redundant circuits.
I believe UIA has redundant circuits now, but they're leased fiber from two different telecoms. The accountants at the two vendors found the least expensive way to bring those fibers in. Usually, that would be "condo-fiber" -- just like a condominium where you own your unit, but the building belongs to someone else.
In this case, they were in separate bundles, but on the same poles running through the Sheep Creek wash, and they both burned down at about the same time.
Running new fiber, in a trench, is incredibly expensive, but UIA fiber is my primary link to the rest of the world (voice and data), and to me this is incredibly good news.