CARRABASSETT VALLEY – A dispute about whether the town’s local public access television station should be made more public or remain in the control of a private company may be addressed later this month, an official with Time Warner said Friday.

For more than 20 years, viewers in Kingfield, Carrabassett Valley and Eustis have had WSKI-TV 17 as part of their cable lineup.

The station provides programming that includes ski trail and weather reports for Sugarloaf, area events, along with sports coverage, news and advertising on a national level.

But at least one critic, a former broadcaster, is saying that arrangement is against Federal Communications Commission rules because the channels are not meant to run as commercial, for-profit operations.

“It’s a unique situation and now that it has come to our attention, we need to take a closer look at it,” said Peter DeWitt, a Time Warner representative.

Initial discussions with WSKI-TV 17 operators, Snowfields Productions, began this week, DeWitt said. Time Warner became the local cable provider in 2006 and like previous provider, Adelphia, has continued to provide the town of Carrabassett Valley with channel 17 at no charge.

The channel is unique, DeWitt said, in that it’s partly a Public Education Government channel and partly commercial. To be considered as such, certain Federal Communications Commission guidelines need to be followed, he said.

Legislation passed by the federal government in 1984 requires cable TV companies to provide a free cable channel to each community, so the general public, schools and the town government have the ability to broadcast local information, said resident Scott Hogg on his Web site, www.bosshogg.biz

Hogg, a veteran broadcaster, has owned and operated commercial radio stations in Maine. He voluntarily produced the “Boss Hogg Show” on Channel 17. In the show, he skied the mountain and talked with other skiers, he said, while under the impression that WSKI-TV was a private, commercial station.

After Snowfields Productions co-owner Nadene McLeod informed him that his services were no longer needed, he was shocked to find out that Channel 17 is the town’s public access channel, he said. It’s a fact that most residents didn’t know, but one that Hogg said he took to the Board of Selectmen.

“The town is in violation of the cable franchise agreement and to expand the problem the station breaks laws mandated by the federal government,” Hogg said. “Once you know about it, it changes everything. There’s good public support. We want the town to do the right thing.”

Hogg would like to see a public access channel created that would not replace WSKI but enhance it, he said.

The town doesn’t operate a public access channel, Town Manager David Cota Friday. Cota said WSKI-TV is a private local station created as part of the marketing department of Sugarloaf Mountain Corp. in 1979, prior to cable television.

“Apparently Adelphia chose to label us as Carrabassett’s public access channel because they didn’t know what label to give us,” McLeod said Friday.

Formed in 1979 to give condos on Sugarloaf television access, McLeod and partner Jeffrey Dumais, who is also president of Resort Sport Network, took over when Sugarloaf filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the 1980s in order to keep it going, she said.

Larry Warren then wanted to include WSKI in his Longfellow Cable company, she said, as he considered the station an asset.

“Every cable company since has wanted us because we are the reason people choose to subscribe rather than taking Dish,” she said. The station is not on public airwaves and only broadcasts from Kingfield to Eustis. Satellite customers would not receive it.

“The station has operated the same as in 1979, every cable company has been aware of how we operate and there has been no discussion until last March,” she said.

With recent concerns raised, Cota said, the board decided to form a committee to present options, including whether the town wants to operate a public access channel, at the upcoming town meeting in March.

So far, only two residents have volunteered to serve, he said. The board has also asked Time Warner about availability for channel 22 as the town’s PEG station, leaving the fate of channel 17 for WSKI and Time Warner to work out.

The town raised $5,000 at town meeting last March to pay Snowfields Productions for a marketing and promotion plan for the town that includes a town video and advertising for the Anti-Gravity Center, an indoor recreation facility near Sugarloaf, and other town events, Cota said.

“With the cost of equipment to run a PEG station, one option would be to contract with Snowfields Productions to provide coverage for more exposure,” he said. The committee’s purpose is to only explore options and present them in March, he said.

“Whatever the voters decide they want to do, WSKI will continue to do business as usual with a local community bulletin board and live local shows,” McLeod said.