Natchez aldermen acknowledged Tuesday their &uot;hands are tied&uot; for now when it comes to cable service in the city. Residents’ dissatisfaction with the city’s only cable television service, Cable One, was once again a topic of discussion for the board of aldermen.

Kate Geoghegan, who lives in the Dunkerron subdivision, complained to aldermen that cable service in her area was off for about 16 hours over Friday night and Saturday morning. &uot;When our cable goes off we can never get anyone on the phone,&uot; she said.

She added that many of the people did not have any other way of getting a weather report that night, which was marked by storms in the area.

Cable One representatives said three utility poles were blown down in the storm Friday, which caused the outage.

In response to Geoghegan’s complaint, Mayor Larry L. &uot;Butch&uot; Brown said he wants Cable One to establish a local answering service for after-hours service calls.

&uot;We’re going to get a warm body on the other end of the phone,&uot; Brown said. As of Tuesday afternoon, he had not talked with anyone at Cable One about his request.

The company does have a local number for its repair answering service, but the calls are not answered locally. Local repairmen are paged, however, when an outage occurs.

Alderman David Massey said residents’ problems with the cable company have been ongoing.

&uot;I don’t know what the answer is,&uot; he said. &uot;There is absolutely nothing this mayor and board of aldermen can do about the cable company. They are deregulated, so they’re not governed by anyone in the state.&uot;

Massey said Cable One’s franchise contract with the city is up in 2001, and he wants the city to advertise nationally for some competition when the time comes.

&uot;In other words we still have a year to suffer,&uot; Geoghegan said.

Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux, who organized a public hearing last year for residents to give input on their problems with cable service, said she’s also not sure what else the city can do to help.

&uot;We’ve all been backed to the wall with this company,&uot; she said.

Alderwoman Sue Stedman said the city’s &uot;hands are fairly well tied&uot; until the franchise contract is up. Cable One holds a non-exclusive franchise contract with the city.

&uot;I get more calls about cable than anything else,&uot; Stedman said.

Cable One Manager Bobby McCool was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.