Edgartown Exits Comcast Talks, Demand for Chappy Service Unsettled

Marking a sudden new turn in the Islandwide negotiations under way for a cable television contract, Edgartown has pulled out of the talks and says it will stay out until a draft contract with Comcast includes service to Chappaquiddick.

The news of Edgartown’s decision surfaced at a cable advisory committee meeting Wednesday that had no quorum. Edgartown selectman and board chairman Arthur Smadbeck later confirmed his town’s decision to walk away from the negotiating table until cable service to Chappy can be guaranteed in the contract.

“We’ve been very frustrated by the inability to get the issue addressed and it’s time at this point to make a stand with Comcast,” Mr. Smadbeck said. “We’ve been very, very patient and working with them for a long time, and we’ve been telling them for the longest time that Chappaquiddick is our number one priority. We’re really not interested in negotiating anymore at this point until we have something on the table to solve that issue.”

Chappaquiddick residents have been outspoken about their desire to have cable service included in the upcoming 10-year contract, with leaders from the small island community appearing repeatedly before the selectmen to press their case. Selectmen have agreed that cable service to Chappaquiddick is warranted and said they would do all they could do to respond to the request.

Mr. Smadbeck said with the contract negotiations nearing an end, the town felt it had run out of options.

“I don’t know what else to do —we’ve bent over backwards and been very, very patient,” Mr. Smadbeck said. “I think we’ve demonstrated the ultimate patience. And if they think they can just wait us out, that isn’t going to happen.”

Sending cable service to Chappaquiddick involves a possible agreement between Comcast and NStar to share a conduit beneath the Edgartown harbor. NStar installed new conduits last winter as part of a utility upgrade for Chappaquiddick. Without the use of one of the conduits, Comcast spokesmen have said it would cost $2 million to build conduits to run a cable to Chappy.

A draft agreement was exchanged between Comcast and NStar in the fall, but Edgartown town administrator Pamela Dolby, who also represents the town on the cable negotiating committee, said this week that she has heard nothing from either company since the end of September. Echoing comments made by Mr. Smadbeck, Mrs. Dolby said the town has exhausted all possibilities.

“They haven’t put forth any proposals to deal with Chappy and I’m not going back until they do,” Mrs. Dolby said. “I don’t feel they’re taking it seriously and I need somebody to take it seriously. There’s been nothing. We’ve been waiting for an agreement. . . . between NStar and Comcast to use the existing conduit to bring service to Chappy and I haven’t heard anything about that yet. I just need something.”

Reached by telephone this week, NStar representative Mike Durand said his company has done its part and the ball is in Comcast’s court. “This is primarily an issue with Comcast,” Mr. Durand said. “Within the last month or so we provided Comcast with information as to how it would involve NStar, and any decision going forward is on Comcast. They’re not awaiting any action on our part. We’ve provided them with the information they would need to help them with the decision going forward and how they would serve the island.”

Comcast representative Doreen Vigue could not be specific and said only that the company will continue to work with NStar, and looks “forward to resuming negotiations with the towns in the coming weeks.”

Contract negotiations between Comcast and the six Island towns have been under way since June. The cable advisory committee had set Dec. 31 as a deadline for reaching a contract, but that deadline has now been extended to February 2012. The deadline was extended before Edgartown pulled out of the talks.

Comcast is the current cable provider on the Island and the only company that responded to the advisory committee’s request for proposals.

Until now it has been the policy of the cable advisory board to proceed with negotiations with the assumption that Edgartown would handle the Chappaquiddick question on its own. But committee members said this week that they may need to consider a new tack.

“Now we don’t know what they’re doing because nobody will talk anymore,” said committee chairman Jennifer Rand. “I think as a committee we need to make some decisions.”

Tisbury and Aquinnah representatives Fred LaPiana and Richard Skidmore agreed.

“Right now as the committee officially stands, and we talked about this up front, that we weren’t going to let Chappy stall negotiations. But the circumstances have changed,” said Mr. LaPiana from Tisbury.

“Now we find Chappy has been left way to the side and not just by us,” said Mr. Skidmore from Aquinnah.

As for the state of the negotiations, Ms. Rand said: “It doesn’t mean anything yet. We need to talk about it. I don’t know what it means. There’s more to be determined.”

Peter Getsinger, cochairman of the Chappaquiddick Island Association and a vocal proponent of bringing cable to Chappy, said yesterday that he was grateful for the town’s decision. “On behalf of the Chappaquiddick Island Association and Chappy residents we are very pleased, as we’ve stated in the past, to receive the support we have from Pam Dolby and the Edgartown selectmen,” Mr. Getsinger said. “This appears to be good government in action. This is a merry Christmas to Chappy in terms of support, but the real Christmas present is up to Comcast to give.”

This article appears in December 23, 2011.