Turn on a TV hooked to cable in Athena, Weston or Adams and all you’ll see is snow.

A disagreement between cable companies crashed cable service to those towns, along with a few others in Oregon.

Since last week, there’s been no cable, said resident Pat Hunkapillar.

“And everybody’s upset,” she said.

A complicated situation.

Charter Communications said it operated cable systems to Athena, Weston and Adams in Umatilla County, Cave Junction in Josephine County and Brownsville in Linn County. Two years ago Charter sold the system to Rapid Communications, which in turn sold it to Almega Cable in December 2008.

For the past two years, Charter was supposed to be receiving payments from Rapid and Almega to pay for the right to use PacifiCorp utility poles to run the cable wires.

Charter said it never received payments.

Sky Laron, Charter government relations manager for the northwest region, working out of Vancouver, Wash., said the following from a prepared statement: “Charter no longer owns or operates the cable systems in Adams, Athena, and Weston. However, due to the failure on the part of Almega Cable to obtain proper agreements with the PacifiCorp to lease space on its utility poles, Charter, as former owner of the systems, is burdened with the liability of such agreements.”

Thomas Kuran, operations manager at Almega, based in Texas, said Charter was asking Almega to pay Rapid’s bills. He added Almega would have paid the bills to Charter for this year, but the billing date isn’t until October.

“Charter wanted us to pay back bills on Rapid,” Kuran said. “We are not in a position to do that. We are a small company.”

Kuran said he’s tried to contact Rapid Communications, but with no luck.

“I cannot get a hold of them,” he said. “They’re not around.”

The East Oregonian was unable to contact Rapid Communications at their Littleton, Colo., listing by press time. The company’s Web site, www.rapidcable.com was also unavailable.

Everything comes down.

Bills to Charter went unpaid and on March 23, Charter took down the cable lines and pole attachments.

And screens went to snow.

“What’s tough is they didn’t give any notice,” said Denise Sampson, Weston City Recorder. Charter did call the city on Friday, March 20, and the next week Sampson saw Charter trucks in town. Citizens haven’t had cable since last Tuesday, the day after Charter said it was taking down equipment, she added.

Kuran said Almega didn’t have notice either. They found out when Charter started taking down the pole attachments.

“We didn’t know Charter was going to do what they were going to do,” he said. “That was a surprise to us.”

No new cable?

Kuran said Almega doesn’t have the capital or ability to rebuild the system Charter took down.

“It’s really hard for us to rebuild the plant,” he said. “We cannot afford to rebuild the plant. I don’t think Almega will continue to offer service there.”

Another thing that made Hunkapillar and other Athena residents even more upset was a cable bill that arrived after the cable went out.

Kuran said an automated service sent out bills before the company found out about the infrastructure being taken down. So some people who haven’t had cable for more than a week are getting bills.

“They don’t have to pay,” Kuran said. He said people are calling and the company is advising them not to pay.

Cities get involved.

Sampson said Weston has contacted it’s city attorney, Doug Hojem for advice on what it can do. Adams is also keeping in contact with Athena and Weston on the situation.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Sampson said.

Dyanne Jo Swanson, city recorder in Athena said her city has gotten involved because the cable companies were supposed to pay franchise fees, similar to the fees the electric company pays. She said Athena hasn’t received any fees since Almega took over.

“The city’s involved and it’s more personal,” Swanson said. “I haven’t had cable for two weeks.”

Swanson contacted the Oregon Department of Justice, where she said she found out Almega isn’t officially doing anything illegal. But she also learned if customers send in enough complaints, the DOJ may be able to take action. Swanson plans to contact Weston and Adams, along with the other affected Oregon towns.

She sent out a letter to Athena citizens Tuesday urging them to contact the DOJ.

“It’s just a terrible situation,” Swanson said.