Village Board Approves Smaller NextG Antennas

The Massapequa Park Village Board approved a slimmed down version of the antenna boxes NextG had planned to install in a residential part of the village.

The company, which has a contract  to install the equipment with wireless service provider Metro PCS, with  will put up nine of the boxes on area utility poles.

The revised plan was agreed to  at Monday's board meeting after more than a year of negotiations between the village and  NextG over the plan which had been greeted by protests from residents who live near the proposed  installations.

NextG which has claimed that they have the right to put up the antenna without the board's approval because of their status as a utility.

But Dan Deegan, a lawyer who appeared on behalf of the company, said the company wanted t maintain a good relationship with the village.

"In the spirit of cooperation and continuing tp try to work with the village, NextG has considered some alternative installations," he said.

The new boxes are about half the size of the original boxes proposed by the company at a November meeting, according to Deegan. Instead of  holding two carriers as the original boxes hold, the new boxes will only hold one.

Massapequa Park is the only locality on Long Island that will have these boxes to date according to Deegan, who said that similar boxes had been installed in Princeton, NJ.

"We've really tried our best to look at some alternatives that might have a lesser profile from an aesthetic perspective Deegan said.

A prototype of the new boxes was displayed at the meeting. The boxes which will be installed in the village will take a few weeks to be manufactured and will be painted brown to match the telephone poles.

Village Mayor James Altadonna, had been critical of the installation plans but said the federal law that allows companies like NextG to install the boxes in residential areas left the board with little choice.

"The telecommunications act of 1996 was a terrible law," Altadonna said, adding that he felt the law should have only applied to installations made in commericial areas, while not applying to residential areas.

"The fact that they didn't stick to commercial areas puts the burden on all local governments and upon our citizens here to shoulder the burden of something they shouldn't be shouldering."

Altadonna said that there had been very few successful court challenges in similar situations, and had the village taken legal action, they likely would have been stuck with the bigger boxes.

"The thing we have to do as a local government is to try to minimize the effect that these residents are going to feel."