Don’t expect Chicago public television station WTTW to return to Time Warner’s Kenosha-area cable lineup anytime soon.

Local officials said Friday it appeared talks between the station and the cable provider had ended in a stalemate over a matter of $8,000.

“We thought that we had an agreement, but it has been vetoed by the executives at Time Warner Cable in New York,” Kenosha County Supervisor Terry Rose said. “Apparently Time Warner Cable executives need to make all decisions, big and small.”

The two sides have been at odds since September, when Time Warner pulled WTTW (Channel 11) from its southeastern Wisconsin lineup, citing duplication with Milwaukee public television programming on cable channels 10 and 16.

Viewers protested, citing their preferences for WTTW’s locally produced programs and Kenosha County’s ties to the Milwaukee and Chicago areas alike. The County Board, City Council and other governmental bodies adopted resolutions, urging Time Warner to reconsider its WTTW decision.

Rose, a sponsor of the board resolution, said he helped to organize a mediation meeting in Mayor Keith Bosman’s office last week.

Time Warner and WTTW left with a tentative agreement that was scuttled this week, after Time Warner’s regional representative presented it to New York executives, Rose said. The Time Warner official could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

In explaining the decision to drop WTTW, Rose said the Time Warner official cited a recent national pact in which cable companies agreed to air public television channels consistent with local markets.

Time Warner considered Kenosha to be in the Milwaukee market, but not Chicago, Rose said.

Rose said Time Warner later agreed to restore WTTW to its digital programming lineup, at a spot other than Channel 11, in trade for up to $20,000 in program copyright fees from WTTW. WTTW balked, noting that it had never previously had to pay Time Warner anything to air its programming.

According to Rose, the tentative deal last week would have had WTTW paying $12,000, $3,000 of which would have gone to Time Warner for copyrights. The remaining $9,000 would have funded promotional efforts to inform southeastern Wisconsin viewers about WTTW’s new channel position.

Dan Soles, WTTW’s vice president of programming, said he was not aware of Time Warner’s ultimate refusal of the compromise until Rose informed him of it Thursday.

Soles blamed fiscal constraints, the changed channel position and a right for Time Warner to drop the station again after a year as reasons to refuse the $20,000 offer.

“The reality is we’re facing serious financial shortfalls,” Soles said. “We have never been asked before by a cable or satellite company to give money to carry our channel. And according to Time Warner, the way they would have carried our channel, they would have moved us to a channel in the 900 range where 30 percent of the viewers would not have had access to it.”

Bosman said WTTW is likely missing an opportunity to get back into the Kenosha cable market for a relatively small sum, which he believes could likely be eclipsed by area viewers’ donations.

“We tried to get them across the table from each other,” Bosman said. “As we did it, it didn’t seem they were all that far apart, but, like I said, it appears Channel 11 is being unreasonable about it.”

Rose was critical of both sides.

“I cannot see, as a public official here who tried to mediate it, why this couldn’t be mediated,” he said. “Each side is being very stubborn, and the Kenosha viewer is the loser in the game.”