HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - The problem-plagued wine vending machine program run by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has run into more trouble.  This time it is a dispute between the LCB and the manufacturer of the automated kiosks.

Those wine kiosks run by the state store system are supposed to be installed at no cost to the Liquor Control Board, but Joe Conti, chief operating officer of the LCB, claims the state is owed almost $1 million in expenses related to the kiosks.

And he says if that dispute is not settled in a month and a half, the LCB may just pull the plug on those kiosks that remain.

“That will probably be the conclusion of the program if they do not cure the remedy needed for the reimbursement of expenses,” Conti said today.

He adds, however, that the kiosks could be turned back on if the dispute is resolved after the deadline.

The kiosk program has been beset with problems (see related story).  Malfunctions caused them to be taken offline for a while over the Christmas holidays (see previous story), and in June, the Wegman’s supermarket chain announced it would remove ten of them from its stores (another related story).

Reported by Tony Romeo, KYW Newsradio 1060