CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Time Warner Cable and Snowfield Productions, owner of WSKI-TV 17, have entered into a partnership, Nadene McLeod of WSKI-TV said Thursday.

The partnership will continue to bring “WSKI programming to cable television watchers in the Carrabassett Valley area as they have over the past 25 years and plan to continue to provide for many years to come,” McLeod said.

The station provides ski trail and weather reports for Sugarloaf, area events, sports coverage, news and advertising.

The partnership resulted from a question raised in December about whether the public access television station should be made public or remain in the control of a private company.

Time Warner became the area cable provider in 2006 and continued to provide the town with Channel 17 at no charge.

Federal legislation requires cable TV companies to provide a free cable channel to communities they serve, so the general public, schools and town government can broadcast information, resident Scott Hogg said on his Web site, www.bosshogg.biz

A veteran broadcaster, Hogg produced the “Boss Hogg Show” on Channel 17 and was surprised to discover that Channel 17 is the town’s public access channel, he said earlier this year. He took the issue to selectmen, noting that the town was in violation of a cable franchise agreement and was breaking laws mandated by the federal government. Hogg says the town is allowing WSKI, a private entity, to manage Channel 17 free of charge.

The town never operated a public access channel, although one was reserved for the town, according to Town Manager Dave Cota.

Since January, a committee has been looking at benefits, expenses and whether the town wants to operate a public channel.

Selectmen recently asked Cota to send a letter to Time Warner that states “the board has agreed to relinquish Channel 17 as the town public access channel to allow Time Warner and WSKI-17 to negotiate a private agreement with the contingency that Time Warner agrees to reserve Channel 22 as the town public access channel should the town vote to operate a public access channel,” Cota said.

The letter will be sent this week, he said.

Meanwhile, Peter DeWitt, a Time Warner representative, said, “We continue to make progress on our collaborative partnership with WSKI. We know that WSKI brings local valuable programming to the community and are committed to moving forward with this partnership,” he said.