TEMPLE — Selectmen in four towns facing the loss of cable television service are looking for other options before the Oct. 15 shutdown.

Argent Telecommunications out of Bristol, N.H., has provided cable service to customers in Temple, Chesterville, Weld and New Sharon for about a year, continuing the service of Time Warner, then Windjammer Cable.

The cable company recently gave customers a two-week notice of its intentions, leaving little time for the towns or customers to react. It cited the economics of providing the service to a small customer base, many of whom take the minimal cable package, as the reason for discontinuing the service.

“We’re trying to work together,” Temple First Selectman Kathy Lynch said  Monday about the four towns. Selectmen are working to find a way to stop the shutdown this month and are looking for time to explore other options.

“We hope people in the four towns don’t give up too fast and race off to satellite services, which could mean losing some strength we have in trying to preserve the service,” she said.

Lynch didn’t find help from the state Attorney General’s Office and calls to state senators directed her to the A.G.

She’s basing hope on a state law that requires six months prior written notice before a cable company can terminate its service in a municipality, she said.

Cable services in Temple started about 30 years ago with a contract between the town and cable provider but were eventually dropped as the service was sold from one company to another, she said.

The other three towns no longer have contracts either.

“They’ve changed hands so many times,” Chesterville Selectman David Archer said. “We’re trying to figure out the best option but it caught us by surprise.”

Some town officials have no idea how many customers in their towns are affected.

In Weld, there’s not a huge number of customers but the majority are on the east side of town and many of those are summer residents who have closed their camps for the season, Selectman Nancy Stowell said. This may not have an immediate impact on them but there are “year-round residents who are dramatically affected,” she said.

Andrew Bauer, vice president of business and marketing for Argent Communications, said last week that about 200 customers from the four towns will be affected.

Argent plans to continue its service in Rangeley, but needed upgrades to these four towns were set aside due to economic reasons. He said the company talked with other cable servers, including BeeLine and Time Warner, but they were not interested in picking up the Argent customers.

When New Sharon Selectman Maynard Webster talked with Bauer on Sept. 30, Bauer told him he was losing money all the time and he wanted to stop.

Lynch is also concerned about residents in Temple who may not have the option of satellite television. The hills around Temple, like Weld, interrupt a view of the southwestern sky that is needed for good reception, she said.

Town officials are also under the impression that the cable company plans to remove the equipment and may have taken some already, she said. Personal property taxes on the cable equipment is owed to the town, she said.

Selectmen said they were meeting in their towns this week and planned to discuss what options, if any, to pursue.

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