Topeka ? It’s been more than seven weeks since a no-call bill was signed into law, but relief in Kansas from the interruptions of telemarketers has failed to materialize.

Now, Kansas Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall’s office says that it may be October before the state will have in place a way for Kansans to get their name on a no-call list. Under legislation approved last session, telemarketers who call people on the list could be prosecuted.

The law took effect July 1, but the Attorney General’s Office and the trade group that is supposed to maintain a Kansas list failed to agree on a contract.

The attorney general’s office is seeking other vendors to maintain the list.

“We’re asking (Kansans) to be patient with us,” said Mark Ohlemeier, a spokesman for Stovall. “We just want to make sure that when it is up and running, it is right and we have a vendor who will provide the best service.”

But some are getting impatient.

When state Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, heard that negotiations between Stovall and the Direct Marketing Assn. fell apart, he said, “I am truly disappointed and upset. I wonder if it’s because the Attorney General’s Office didn’t get the bill they wanted, they said, ‘the hell with it.'”

During the legislative session, Stovall’s office supported a bill that would have put the Attorney General’s Office in charge of a no-call list. That was opposed by the telemarketing industry.

Ohlemeier said Barone’s criticisms were unfounded.

“This is the law that the Legislature passed, and we are going to work with it,” Ohlemeier said.

The main hang up with the Direct Marketing Assn. was the group’s inability to guarantee that Kansans mailing their no-call registration notices to the trade group’s post office box would have their names on the no-call list within 30 days, he said. A spokesman for the association did not return a phone call.

“As soon as we realized that there was probably no way we could work with the DMA on this issue, the attorney general started looking at the possibility of other vendors,” Ohlemeier said. He said the office hoped to have a no-call list in place in October.

AARP officials in Kansas said the senior citizen group, which lobbied for no-call legislation, was disappointed in the delay of enacting a no-call list, but believes the Attorney General’s Office may get a better contract now.

“We just didn’t believe the trade association would provide consumers with the privacy and protections we wanted,” Ernest Kutzley, of AARP in Topeka, said. “I think that possibly we’ll be in a better position once the new contract comes out.”