PALERMO — In the 1980s, residents of Palermo relied on antennas mounted on roofs for television service.

When the 1990s rolled around, satellite dishes became part of the landscape.

But in all this time, there has never been cable service of any kind within town boundaries.

Sophia Glidden, a member of the Board of Selectmen for six years, said she never thought much about not having cable.

“Most of us have the Internet, or Fairpoint, but cable TV we don’t have,” Glidden said Thursday. “There’s satellite dishes out there. We all have them. And unless there’s a strong storm, we have good access to all the TV programs.”

Richard Reitchel, an independent contractor who lives in Palermo, asked selectmen in the beginning of October if they would look into contacting Time Warner to find out about extending service into town.

He said years ago residents who lived in remote areas of town would have had to pay for installation of the poles and wire to reach their property.

“I have Direct TV right now, but I’m mainly looking into it for more Internet options,” Reitchel said. “I don’t have a home phone, just a cell phone. It’s an extra bill we don’t need. For Internet you’re kind of stuck to go to Verizon or a satellite company, both of which are expensive and slow.”

Reitchel said he is waiting to hear back from selectmen to see if Time Warner is interested in bringing cable to town.

Code Enforcement Officer Darryl McKenney said the town has an ordinance that requires a company to offer service to all residents, not just those in densely populated areas.

The ordinance, adopted in 1993, says that any cable television company serving Palermo “must agree to furnish cable television to all who have electric or telephone line within three years, if the people want it.”

“We first have to make changes to the ordinance so the company would want to come to town,” he said.

“I wrote to Time Warner and selectmen signed it to see if they would re-evaluate the case. That’s where we’re at now. We need to put something on the warrant at the town meeting in March to change the town ordinance to make it possible for Time Warner to bring (cable) to Palermo.”

Glidden said hooking Palermo up to cable television would depend, first and foremost, on the cost to the town.

“We didn’t even discuss that, if the town has to pick up the cost or how that gets handled,” she said. “We’re still in the early stages of this.”

Sheila McCarty said that when the ordinance was adopted, townspeople wanted cable only if everyone could have access to it, not just people living on the main route.

“That was the biggest contention in the ordinance,” McCarty said. She said Reitchel told the board he would draft a letter of request, and the board could edit and sign it.

Palermo has a population of 1,400 and a lot of back roads and camp roads.

“We’re surrounded by towns that have cable. We just don’t have cable,” she said. “A lot of people, like the former town clerk, have said the cable company wanted the town to pay to install it.

Those discussions were in the late 80s early 90s.”

Andrew Russell, spokesman for Time Warner, said his company has heard from a couple of Palermo residents who want cable service.

He said Time Warner offers services to communities all over the state.

When it does an expansion, he said the money comes from the company’s own private risk capital.

“There are some cases where we partnered with communities that applied with ConnectME grants to do expansions,” Russell said. “Those are situations where towns apply and we go in and say OK, this is what it will cost to do it.”

The ConnectME Authority provide grants for “last mile” infrastructure projects to provide high-speed Internet service and cable to customers in unserved areas of Maine.

Mechele Cooper — 621-5663

[email protected]