CHAFFEE: TV CABLE PROBLEMS SOON TO END, SAYS COUNCILMAN

CHAFFEE - Ward 1 Councilman Jerry Wolsey says he's sure the days of Chaffee's consistent television cable problems are numbered.

On Thursday, Wolsey said he was positive that city officials and the general manager of the cable company that serves Chaffee would work together to get the problems corrected and proper service restored.

"What I don't want going on is Chaffee left out in the back 40. I want our community serviced just like the rest of the communities that they provide cable for," said Wolsey.

Falcon Cable TV holds the city's cable television franchise. For the past year, Wolsey said, the city has received complaints about the company's service.

One thing city residents had protested was that they were unable to get anyone with the company to answer their calls or respond to their complaints, Wolsey said. The councilman said city residents have also had interrupted service on various channels.

The general manager of the company's Sikeston office, Larry Spangler, attended the Chaffee City Council meeting Monday night about the problems. Spangler came to the meeting, Wolsey said, after Wolsey invited him to attend.

The action followed a letter Wolsey said he sent Spangler about a month ago in regard to the problems.

About a dozen people upset with the cable service attended the meeting, Wolsey said. "He (Spangler) knew that there was no doubt a problem here; it just wasn't one councilman complaining."

Spangler said Thursday the company was working to correct the problems. "We should be on our way to seeing some improvement in the Chaffee area," he said.

One problem brought out at the council meeting involved an audio problem on CNN, said Spangler. Falcon, he said, corrected that problem the same evening.

Some recent problems, Spangler said, stemmed from the company's addition of an extra satellite receiving station, which caused some cable channels to switch off and on for while. In addition there were several areas where the trunk line cable went bad and the pictures weren't good for several days as workers replaced the cable, he said.

The toll-free number listed for Falcon in the Chaffee telephone directory was another problem cited by Wolsey. Wolsey said Spangler contacted him Tuesday and they discovered that the number is wrong.

"That is a big problem right there. People in Chaffee gave up calling. And when they would reach this office there would be two or three days before a representative could get in here and get their complaint serviced," he said.

The city's other councilman in Ward 1 said he had a wall calender in March that he used to keep track of any problems he saw with the cable service.

"Usually every day I had information to add to it," said the councilman, Bill Cannon. "At the end of the month I had the whole thing full."

Both Cannon and Wolsey said they believe Spangler was not aware of the problems being experienced with the city's cable service.

Falcon's franchise agreement with the city will end in 1993 or 1994, Spangler said. The company, he said, has already entered into the franchise renewal process with the city.