As negotiations for a new 10-year cable television contract inch closer to the finish line, new sticking points have emerged.

Service to Chappaquiddick is now included in a final contract proposal from Comcast, but a spokesman for Chappy residents called the proposal unacceptable, given the price tag of some $3,800 per household that Comcast would require. And underserved areas in Chilmark surfaced as another point of contention late last week.

The Islandwide cable advisory committee has until Oct. 12 to sign a contract. If a deal is not reached by that date, the towns will consider issuing a preliminary denial of service.

At the All-Island selectmen’s meeting last Thursday, cable advisory attorney Bill Solomon explained the procedure. He said a preliminary denial has not been drafted yet because it could be a waste of time “when both sides are trying to get to yes. We’ve pushed it off in order to spend time on what matters.”

Committee chairman Jennifer Rand said the proposal sent by Comcast two weeks ago was “probably the most complete offer we’ve gotten from them since their original offer.” She continued:

“The big piece of this is build-out. The whole point of the cable negotiations is to make sure residents of Martha’s Vineyard will be served.”

Ms. Rand called the latest proposal from Comcast for Chappaquiddick “a good step in the right direction.”

The proposal calls for a one-time payment by subscribers ranging from $1,500 to about $3,800 depending on the participation rate. Chappaquiddick customers would be required to sign up for two years, with the added cost of ordinary monthly fees. The $1,500 up-front cost would apply in the unlikely event that Chappy saw 100 per cent participation among 500 houses. The more likely fee would be $3,800 per household with a 40 per cent participation rate, the minimum Comcast will consider.

In a letter to the Edgartown selectmen this week, Chappaquiddick Island Association president Roger Becker said the offer amounts to little more than a red herring.

“Would any resident of Martha’s Vineyard sign on to this deal?” he wrote. “As Comcast apparently hopes, there is little chance 200 of the 500 property owners on Chappy will buy into such a plan, and so Comcast is essentially just saying no to Chappaquiddick.”

The complete text of the letter is published as a letter to the editor in today’s edition.

In Chilmark, the affordable housing project off Middle Line Road, and Quansoo and Meeting House Roads were not included in the latest Comcast proposal.

“Everything except the build-out sounds terrific,” Chilmark selectman Warren Doty said at the All-Island selectmen’s meeting.

“We wired all of the buildings [at Middle Line Road] for cable and we would have put in the wiring with the conduit if Comcast would have let us, but they didn’t,” Mr. Doty said. “It seems like a small thing, but I’m sure Chilmark is not going to sign off on the contract if the wire isn’t put through that conduit.

“You can’t have an affordable housing project and then tell [the residents] to pay $1,400 to wire up the cable. That’s not going to happen.”

The discussion continued at the Chilmark selectmen’s meeting Tuesday.

“I thought we made it clear to either give the town Middle Line Road or address Quansoo Road and Meeting House Road,” said executive secretary Timothy Carroll who represents the town on the cable advisory committee. “For them to do neither is kind of disappointing.”

Mr. Doty agreed.

“The conduit [at Middle Line Road] sits there empty because Comcast wouldn’t wire it and it would also seem it’s not that big a deal in a contract of this size to muscle them to say throw this in, which still puzzles me,” he said. “To say they couldn’t wire 12 units when a conduit is already in place . . . we put in 4,000 feet of conduit. This is a hangup.”